Nightfall
by Dr. Snakes MD
Summary: "You can't always win. Sometimes circumstances are outside your control, sometimes you suffer losses. If we don't bend, we break. A shinobi endures. Do you understand?" His life the prize in a game with stakes too high and odds too long, Naruto learns that survival is its own form of victory. Sequel to Patriot's Dawn. AU.
1. Prologue: Run

_It's much darker this time._

/~/

Pain was always the first thing to return.

_What hit me?_ Yuto thought blearily, bringing a hand to rest on his throbbing forehead. The moment it touched, the floodgates opened. Waves of pain crashed into him that would've driven him to his knees were he not already sitting down.

"Aaaaahhhh," he gasped, falling forward reflexively. He bolted up a moment later, white hot fire in his ribs necessitating nothing less.

Yuto blinked, his memories reasserting themselves.

A routine mission near the border of Earth Country, leading his three genin.

A warning; the slightest pricking of his heightened senses.

A blur of darkness stark against the red-brown steppes.

"How's it?" a nearby voice drawled. Or was it growled? He could hardly tell with his head throbbing as it was.

Yuto still nearly jumped out of his seat, the sudden motion sending a fresh flood of pain through him. His head snapped up regardless and he ignored the pounding in favor of trying – _finally_ – to assess the situation. _Stupid_, he chided himself. _You're already on the back foot_.

A blond man – _younger, he's not tall enough_ – leaned against the stone wall of the room he was trapped in, half shrouded in shadow. _The black blur_, he confirmed, for everything the boy wore was black; from the tips of his sandals to his sleeveless shirt, kevlar chest plate, and the half mask covering the bottom part of his face. The shock of blond hair atop his head stood out like a beam of sunlight after dark by contrast.

"If you've finished staring at me…" the boy began in a guttural voice that sent Yuto's head spinning. "I've got a couple questions for you."

Violet eyes pinned him in place, a quiet fury in them belying the boy's almost lazy tone.

"What do you want?" Yuto whispered, feeling his heartrate spike. He shuffled in his seat, trying to avoid the violet stare. _I'm not in chains_, he realized belatedly.

"Nothing you won't be prepared to give," the blur growled.

Yuto managed to withhold a flinch, his faculties returning at long-last. _You're a jonin, get ahold of yourself!_ he commanded. He froze. _Where's my team!?_ The thought clattered through his head, shocking reason and protocol back into him.

A prisoner's first duty was to escape.

A prisoner could only repeat their name and rank.

A prisoner could say nothing about their mission, their comrades, or their village.

A prisoner's final duty was to die.

"Nagatomo Yuto: jonin," he said at length, doing his best to remove all semblance of emotion from his voice.

The violet eyes rolled, though they appeared no less furious. "Oh this's what we're doing here?" The boy sighed, though it came out more like a hiss. "Nagatomo Yuto: jonin of Iwagakure. Sensei to Shibasaki Gatu, Ando Kozue, and Ariyoshi Saori. Returning from a C-ranked escort mission in Grass Country commissioned by Kagawa Shinji. Enough intel for you?"

Yuto blinked, momentarily stunned by the brief deluge of information that no one outside Iwa's mission office and Kagawa-san himself should know. He shook himself a moment later. "Nagatomo Yuto: jonin," he repeated.

"Typical," the blond muttered. A burst of killing intent smacked Yuto across the face, knocking the air out of his lungs as sudden vertigo gripped him. He managed to control his gag reflex in time to hold back vomit, barely. "You're all the same. So much _loyalty_," the last word was spat like a curse. Yuto blinked his eyes open to see black sandals standing directly in front of him. He started as a small hand fisted itself in his hair. "_Kai_."

Yuto felt his chakra stutter for a moment as the boy stepped back, revealing a nightmare made reality. His team stared out at the world with horrified eyes, and the sound of hissing made his heart drop to the floor. A snake was curled about each of his students, each one as thick around as his waist. They coiled and uncoiled lazily around his team, the genin's visible shivers of terror not registering in the slightest.

Kozue stared at him, her naked terror pleading with him. Gatu had his eyes locked on their captor, wide and almost disbelieving at the situation. It was Saori that hurt the most; her gaze turned downcast after the genjutsu was lifted, utterly resigned to whatever fate awaited them.

Unbridled fury gripped Yuto. He exploded up from his chair, heedless of the pain, calling his still-free chakra to _crush_ his foolish blond captor–

And barely had a moment to process a sudden pain in his sternum and a brief moment of weightlessness before his back crashed into a wall of solid stone with enough force to crack it. "Uuugh," he groaned, sliding to the floor as fire spread through his chest He blinked once, and felt a vice grip close about his neck. He reached to claw at it impotently, gasping for breath despite the pain, and was unceremoniously lifted in the air.

Violet eyes stared up at him, and if they had been furious before now they were positively _livid_.

"Strike one," the blond growled. "They must not teach you how to use those thick heads of yours up in Iwa."

_He's not using chakra._ The realization pierced the haze of panic and pain clouding Yuto's mind. He was a sensor-type; there had been no surge, no rush, and no output of chakra – even now – as the boy effortlessly held him overhead. _What _is_ he!?_

He dropped back to the stone floor with a thump that set his nerve endings aflame, all the pain that had been in his body before seemingly magnified. Yuto sucked in air like a man dying of thirst, uncaring of the fire in his ribs. "You're lucky I'm in a good mood," the black-clad blond told him, walking back towards his poor, terrified genin. Yuto tried to muster something, anything, to show them they could still make it out of this, but felt himself quail at the immediate memory of being body slammed the moment he had tried to break them free. "Normally I'd have killed one of these three for that dumbass move. Be doing 'em a favor if you're the best Iwa's got for jonin sensei. They let anybody teach genin these days, I swear."

Yuto stared balefully at the boy – who might well have been _younger_ than his students if not for that voice and those eyes – seeing underneath the underneath for the first time since he'd awoken. _He's playing you like a goddamn fiddle_. He'd been easily provoked into a reckless attack, only been left unbound with his chakra loose to prove a point.

This boy, this _monster_, was the one in charge here.

_His reserves are _massive, Yuto noticed, aware enough finally to feel the rivers upon lakes upon _oceans_ of energy lying in wait just below the surface of his captor. His eyes cut to the three snakes restraining his genin, feeling himself go cold. The list of known snake summoners was short, and last he checked Orochimaru wasn't a blond teenager.

"Uzumaki Naruto," he breathed, his beleaguered mind filling in the gaps from a jonin intelligence briefing a year previous. _A-ranked nuke-nin_… "What d'you want?"

"Finally ready to chat, huh?" Violet eyes glittered, some dark amusement managing to coexist alongside the barely bridled malice. He reached into his back pocket and Yuto tensed involuntarily, only to pull out a…deck of cards?

The blond sifted through them, the cards blurring for a moment, before plucking one seemingly at random from the pile. He deposited the rest of the deck back into his pocket and held the single card up. Yuto sensed an infinitesimal application of chakra, and managed to catch the card on reflex alone as it cut through the air towards his face.

He blinked, staring down at the face of his former sensei. "Haraguchi Shibito," Naruto said unnecessarily. Familiar, scowling eyes stared back at Yuto. His old sensei's beard was a scraggly as ever. "Former elite jonin and A-ranked nuke-nin from Iwa."

Yuto scoffed. "If you're after the Yonbi you're outta luck," he said. He tossed the card back contemptuously and Naruto snatched it from the air with ease. "He always hated his brother."

It was the blonde's turn to scoff. "Understatement right there. Nah, I don't care about Roshi. I just want Shibito. Everything you've got on him," Naruto said, his gravelly voice somehow relaxed. "You can start with his last known location."

"What does a Konoha traitor want with an Iwa nuke-nin?" Yuto heard himself ask.

"Thought I was the one asking the questions…" Naruto said, eyes narrowing. Yuto managed to hold the gaze, refusing to flinch. The blond shrugged. "Well, Shibito ain't your average traitor, is he?" the blond drawled. He had returned to his original post in the shadows, leaning casually against the stone. "One of the Tsuchikage's _favorites_." And was that actual bitterness in the boy's voice? "Not your normal nuke-nin. Got a pretty good deal, if you ask me. Not everyone can just up and walk away over – how d'you say – philosophical differences."

Yuto kept his face carefully blank, memories of his sensei a rising tide he struggled to keep at bay. Naruto chuckled. "Yeah, I know that whole story, so you don't hafta worry about giving up Iwa secrets. I know a whole lotta things, so don't bother tryna lie either. Cause…well…" The blond sent a meaningful glance toward the three immobilized genin.

"Why do you want to know about him?" Yuto asked, voice carefully modulated. Killing intent knocked the air from his lungs once more, and it took every ounce of his willpower not to fall backwards at a blow that felt almost physical given its potency.

"Nothing about Iwa," Naruto told him as if nothing had happened. Short steps carried the blond to where Yuto was slumped and he crouched down to eye level. The boy's head cocked to the side – _he's fif_teen, the Iwa jonin finally remembered with horror – peering out with eyes that promised nothing but pain. "Just wanna ask him a few questions, same as you. He works for an organization I'm…_investigating_."

Yuto cast his eyes toward his students, the final piece of the puzzle clicking into place. "Akatsuki," he whispered.

"Mhmm. You brokered a deal between them and Iwa didn't you, Yuto?" Naruto asked rhetorically. "Reached out to your old sensei to contract some services a couple years ago when old-man Tsuchikage was in a bit of a pinch. Big stuff, that. Kinda thing that'll get you promoted to jonin, hmm?"

Sudden hissing snatched Yuto's attention. His eyes cut to his students, only to see each of the three snakes shifting to place their mouths directly next to each genin's head. Tongues flitted out, tasting the air and barely touching each of the three teens' faces. At their whimpering, Yuto felt whatever was left of his resolve crumble to dust.

"What do you want to know?"

Violet eyes gleamed as Naruto answered with a grin feral enough to be seen through his mask.

/~/

**Short, but it gets us started. Will continue to focus on Hurricane Suite for a few more chapters before turning my attention here, but figured I'd kick this off.**

**Elements of the summary were taken, with permission, from JMenace's _Love Sick_. If you haven't read it yet, do yourself a favor and do it now. **

**Continued thanks to the DLP crew for their ever-useful feedback.**


	2. Chapter 1: The Game Has Changed

Her body was awake and alert long before her alarm began to blare. She shushed it absently, continuing to stare blankly at the picture that held her attention.

Sarutobi Asuma's hands were clasped behind his back, she knew, a proud smile etched forever onto his face. Kiba held his right hand in a fist, too-sharp incisors bared at the camera in a feral grin; Akamaru perched in his partner's hair, happy as he had ever been.

She glanced to her own face, lingering pride at having passed Asuma's probation to become a full-fledged genin clear in her eyes. _Barely more than a year ago…_

It felt like a lifetime as Ino finally let her eyes rest on the final member of Team Ten. Naruto's blond hair shone like the sun, his lips barely parted in a satisfied smile that stretched his whisker marks.

She waited patiently, seafoam eyes locked on the face of her former teammate, friend, and boyfriend, for the familiar empty pangs that would leave her breathless and teary eyed. She hadn't once looked at the old photo of Team Ten in the six months since Naruto's defection. Hadn't been able to bring herself to look at the face of the boy who had been able to calm her down and set her heart racing in equal measure.

Ino blinked, cocking her head to the side as she turned her gaze inward. She had never lacked self-awareness – it was a necessity to walk the minds of others – and rarely questioned her thoughts and feelings. They were natural. It was dealing with them that was difficult.

"Only takes six months, then," she murmured, surprised in spite of herself.

There was no manual for getting over a teammate defecting. Everyone had told her that. It took time to stop seeing that person as a friend and comrade. No one could pinpoint just how much time, however.

_Better than the alternative_, she told herself distantly, feeling her heartrate spike. It wasn't heartache that made her short of breath these days. "Wouldn't wanna be a blubbering mess when I get my hands on you." Her eyes narrowed, simmering anger a familiar comfort.

She tore the old team photo roughly, without a word, removing Naruto's third of the picture the same way he had left Konoha. The intact two-thirds left over drifted to the floor of her apartment lazily as she rose abruptly, striding to the far wall. Ino placed the torn photo at eye level, drew a kunai, and stabbed it through Naruto's chest.

"I'm coming for you," she growled at him. "And you're gonna be sorry you ever made me feel like this. I promised. And you can't break a promise; isn't that right?" She stared at the smiling photo for a long moment before she shook herself.

"Get ahold of yourself, Ino," she told herself. _You're talking to a damn picture_. She breathed deeply, once, twice, three times, and blinked her eyes open once more.

Firmly in control of her emotions, she spared one last glance at her former teammate's face before sweeping away toward her bed. Ino clipped her tanto to its now-familiar place on her left side, ignoring the sight of her fingers covered in skintight black gloves. She slapped each of her new, gray forearm bracers, making sure they were properly strapped, and reaffixed her new chest protector.

Ino turned her eyes down to the last two items on her bed; a charcoal cloak laid placidly, waiting for her to don it for the first time, and a porcelain mask with an eagle's face stared up at her. Thick, deep purple brushstrokes by her own hand painted the bird of prey's sharp visage into a hawkish frown.

A wry smile twisted her lips at the sight. "Gotta get used to it eventually…" Ino snapped the mask up a moment later, clipping it to her right hip, and swung the cloak around her shoulders.

Two quick steps carried her to the window that led to her fire escape, and she wasted no time slipping out. A quick flip carried her over the edge and upward to the roof of her three story building.

Yamanaka Inoichi stood casually leaned against the far wall of the roof, arms crossed. Ino nearly jumped out of her cloak, and the smallest of smiles split the veteran jonin's lips.

"Daddy?" Ino croaked, mastering her surprise in a moment. "What're you doing here?"

"You didn't think I'd let you go to your first day without seeing you off, did you?" her father asked.

Ino colored. "I…it crossed my mind," she hedged, and felt a pang a moment later as Inoichi's face fell.

"You know I'm proud of you, sweetheart. So unbelievably proud of you," he said, seafoam eyes overflowing with sincerity. "It's just been –"

"Difficult," Ino finished for him, smiling to try to relieve the tension. She walked to him, letting him wrap her in his arms gently. "How's mom?"

"Sleeping," Inoichi murmured into her hair. "Worried about you."

She grimaced. "I just had to get away, daddy."

"I know, Ino. Your mother does too, deep down. It's just difficult for her to accept." He held her at arm's length, smiling down at her, and Ino felt her heart swell at the pride swimming in his eyes. "It's tough enough for me, you growing up so fast, and I've lived it. Just give her time."

Ino sighed. As prodigious as her father was in the mind arts, for all the perception it gave him, he had a blind spot the size of the Hokage Monument for her mother. She suspected he had a similar one for her, as well. "She's been like this since I became a genin. Don't think she's gonna calm down about me joining ANBU any time soon."

"She loves you," Inoichi declared.

"I know she does. I just can't handle her smothering me and trying to get me to change my mind every day. Not about this."

"She's also quite stubborn," her father told her, the barest hint of a smile curling the edges of his lips. "A trait you two share, I might add."

Ino felt herself scowl, but refrained from commenting at the amusement on her father's face. She knew how her decision to move out three months previous had weighed on him – it was good to see him in good spirits.

"Well, let's see it then," he said, stepping back to give her space.

She felt her heartrate pick up in spite of herself – he'd be the first person to see her mask since she painted it. Each ANBU's mask was painted by the member personally and her father, having worked with the clandestine group daily for decades, would no doubt psychoanalyze every detail. It was his job.

Ino unclipped the porcelain from its place on her belt and removed it from beneath her cloak, holding it out for Inoichi to take. He did so wordlessly, expression carefully neutral in a way that had always rankled her as a child.

"Which bird?" he asked.

"An eagle."

Her father blinked as he stared down at the mask, silent for a long moment before handing it back to her. "One of a fox's natural predators," he said, voice as blank as his expression.

"You don't approve."

She was treated to the sight of her normally unflappable father's face creasing into a conflicted grimace. "You have every right to feel the way you do, Ino. I just don't want to see you consumed by this…"

"This what?" Ino heard herself bite.

"Crusade," Inoichi finished around a sigh. "You're angry –"

"A pretty _fair_ reaction, I'd say."

" – which, as I said, is your right. But _please_, sweetheart, be careful," her father pleaded, gripping her shoulders. His eyes, so similar to her own, bored into her. "ANBU changes people. It's why I was hesitant about you joining the liaison program in the first place. Adding something like this to an already stressful tour…I couldn't bear to see you get hurt, Ino."

She averted her eyes, turning them down and away to avoid her father's beseeching gaze. "I have to do this, daddy. I _have to_." She shook her head, letting him hold her steady as a rising tide of emotion gripped her. "He's only going to get stronger, and I'm not gonna catch up running B-ranked missions with some chunin squad. It's the only way for me to catch him."

"And when you do? What then? We don't treat traitors well. You cared for the boy. Could you handle seeing him in chains, tortured, executed?"

Ino very carefully withheld a wince. _Hate is a funny emotion_, she thought, her resolve crystallizing at her own emotional rollercoaster. _You set yourself on this path. You've gotta see it through_. "I trusted him. I trusted him and he lied to me. Every day we were together he _lied_ _to me_," she said, spitting the last despite her best intention. _Get ahold of yourself, Ino_. She breathed deeply, once, twice, and refocused. "I made a promise to bring him back. Either kicking and screaming or in a bag doesn't matter. He betrayed me, he betrayed Kiba, he betrayed Asuma-sensei, all of us."

"Uzumaki Naruto isn't your responsibility, sweetheart."

_He is_. "Maybe not," she allowed. "But I couldn't live with myself if I didn't try, daddy. You get that, right?"

Inoichi's eyes softened, and Ino ruthlessly quashed the guilt at preying on his affection. "I do. People rarely make sound decisions when they're angry, Ino. I just want to make sure you're not casting yourself into a fire for nothing."

She mustered a smile. "I'll be fine. I'm your daughter, after all."

He smiled sardonically. "And now you're buttering me up. I raised you too well." Inoichi's smile turned proud once more, though it didn't light up his eyes like earlier. "You're the best our clan has to offer this world, sweetheart, both in ability and conviction. You've always been emotional, but never more so than when your friends were threatened. Call it sentiment, but I hope that never changes."

Ino felt herself blush in spite of herself. "I'll do my best."

"You always do." Her father laid a hand on her head softly, gently ruffling her hair. "Never doubt how proud I am of you. I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't worry."

She smiled. "I know."

Inoichi pulled her in for another hug, one she returned whole-heartedly. "Wish Kiba luck when you see him," he said as he let her go and stepped back, clearing a path for her.

"Thanks, daddy." Ino spared him one last smile before she formed a half ram seal and sped off in a shunshin. The earth tones of Konoha blurred for a few moments as the speed jutsu carried her to the outskirts of the village, toward the multitude of training grounds that lined the outer walls.

Two familiar chakra presences tweaked her awareness and she slipped out of the body flicker for a moment, changed direction ever-so-slightly, and disappeared once more. She reappeared in a swirl of leaves a moment later, gratified at the sight of similarly cloaked shinobi lazing against a tree.

"You're late," Kiba growled, though there was no real heat behind the words. A low bark that she was still getting used to heralded Akamaru's presence, and she dropped to a knee to pet her old teammate's partner. _He's getting so big!_

"My dad showed up on my roof."

"Trying to stop you?"

Ino shook her head, scratching Akamaru on the sweet spot behind his ears. "Just wishing me luck. Said to pass it on to you when I saw you."

Her feral ex-teammate nodded. "Tell him thanks for me when you see him again. You ready?"

The blonde considered for a moment, letting the ninken trot back over to Kiba. "As I'll ever be. If six months of intensive training didn't do it, nothing will."

"They picked us for a reason," the Inuzuka said easily. "Left all the scrubs behind. You know what team you'll be on?"

"Some division of Beta Platoon."

"Probs for the best. Alpha's a buncha stuck up pricks."

Ino rolled her eyes, long since used to her friend's uncompromising declarations. "How you feeling?" she asked.

Kiba just shrugged. "They'll gimme shit for being a newbie, but that's just how it goes. Me and Akamaru'll fit right in in no time."

_Considering the Hunter-nin are two-thirds Inuzuka already, I should hope so,_ she thought. She withheld a cringe a moment later. _They're all just like him too…_ Suddenly she was glad she had decided to forgo the Hunter-nin corps and apply for Operations. "Well…see you in two years?" she offered.

Kiba grinned, his top incisors poking out. "See you in two years. And if we haven't caught the bastard by then, well…"

"We'll do it some other way," Ino finished, trying to smile back and failing miserably.

"Damn straight. See you around, Yamanaka. C'mon, Akamaru!" he called, leaping in to the tree canopy to go join his assigned squad.

"Later," she muttered. She'd gotten used to Kiba's brusqueness, but it was still off-putting at times. _A little support would be nice_…

Ino shook her head, casting the useless thoughts aside. "Focus up, girl." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, two, three, four times. Feeling her heartrate settle and her mind calm ever so slightly, she opened her eyes.

Forming a half ram seal, she disappeared in a shunshin once more, darting through foliage and dense underbrush with ease. _Training ground twenty-seven_, she thought, remembering the information packet she'd received the day before.

She reappeared in a puff of smoke. The clearing was as small as she remembered from having staked it out the day before, barely large enough for two people to practice taijutsu together. She cast her senses about, struggling not to reflexively close her eyes as she searched for chakra presences.

Ino schooled her features as she found two immediately. One was concealed in the bushes to her immediate right, the second camouflaged in the trees to her left. _Need to be better_, she chided herself. _I'd be dead if this was an ambush_. _Now where's the third…?_

"Yamanaka Ino." She blinked, managing through some sheer force of will to contain a flinch at the deep voice that spoke from everywhere at once. A burly man, cloaked in white and sporting a bear mask, rose fluidly from the earth in front of her, only then becoming noticeable to her senses. "Welcome," he said, his voice now only coming from him.

The two shinobi she had noticed reappeared at the captain's sides in flutters of leaves. They both wore the same grey cloak she sported, and were of similar heights. With their cloaks and mask in place, Ino couldn't make many observations about either of them outside of their masks: one a severe-faced bird delicately painted in red, the other a grinning green lizard.

_Am I supposed to say something?_ she wondered, fighting the urge to fidget in front of her new teammates.

She was spared an awkward opening as the three shinobi moved as one, each reaching up and removing their masks. The captain had brown eyes and brown hair and looked so utterly unremarkable that Ino felt he had been born for covert ops. Her eyes slid to the left and widened slightly at the young face that stared back at her. The lizard masked shinobi was a boy who couldn't have been more than two years her senior; pale green eyes narrowed slightly as he smirked at her, clearly enjoying her surprise. Ino pursed her lips at the taunt, fighting not to flush the same color as his hair and darting her eyes to the final ANBU.

Off-white, pupil-less eyes regarded her with a seemingly distant disdain that all Hyuuga besides Hinata had apparently had bred into them. And where her new friend's Byakugan only ever looked upon her with kindness, Ino couldn't help but feel naked beneath the stare of the ANBU in front of her.

"Hello," she managed levelly, refocusing on the captain and squaring her shoulders. "Yamanaka Ino, codename Washi, reporting for duty, sir."

"Well met, Washi. My name is Suzuki Housei, codenamed Kuma. To my left is Hyuuga Hikari, codename Taka. To my right is Haruno Daisuke, codename Tokage. We are Epsilon Squad," the captain rumbled.

Ino kept her eyes steadily on Housei, despite wanting to dissect the redhead to his right. _No one ever told me what Sakura's cousin did_… "What are my duties, captain?" she asked instead.

The ghost of a smile overtook the captain's face. "Training. We leave for deployment in one month. You come highly touted from the Liaison Program, however…"

"We're still gonna whip you into shape, rookie," Daisuke burst out, a full-fledged grin overtaking his face.

The Hyuuga sighed, turning her eyes skyward for a moment. "If you could maintain decorum for even a _minute_, Tokage."

"Let him have his fun, Taka," Housei chided, brown eyes warm. "He's not the rookie anymore, after all."

"Of course, senpai."

Ino felt her eyes slide back and forth between her new teammates, feeling at ease and like an interloper in the same moment. _You'll find I'm full of surprises_, she thought challengingly, meeting Daisuke's eyes for a moment. His grin only widened.

"Don your mask, Yamanaka-san," Housei commanded, suddenly serious. He replaced his own, the other two following suit.

Ino slipped her hand inside her cloak, fingers finding and retrieving the delicately carved porcelain. She took one look at the scowling eagle, exhaled, and raised it to her face.

She felt the minute pulse of chakra as the adhesion seals molded the mask to her skull; it couldn't be removed by any hand but her own, she knew. Ino blinked in a slight stupor as the world around her remained unchanged to her eyes. _No loss of vision or depth perception. Dumbass, did you really think ANBU saw everything through holes?_ she chided herself.

"Ready, senpai!" she barked, feeling the first tendrils of anticipation and nervousness increase her heartrate.

The captain wasted no time regarding her, turning instead to leap into the trees. Taka and Tokage followed, and Ino blasted off the ground with chakra to catch up.

She found herself next to Sakura's cousin as they bounded through the trees, and the teen turned his masked face to her for a moment.

"Welcome to ANBU, Washi."

/~/

Darkness had become a familiar comfort. The darkness of unconsciousness, sleep or involuntary, was the only respite he had. As such, he took it wherever he could. Meditation was preached at him daily – _through self-awareness comes self-control, through self-control comes strength _ – and he even managed it every now and then.

Not now, though.

_He'll come through the west door. Fast. Meet him halfway. He likes to open with elbows, get in close. Let him. You're stronger now, even with his bones._

He suppressed the memories of broken bones and torn muscles. Of screams and pain; the long hours that had gifted him a hope of challenging his nemesis. _Give him what he wants. Get what you need._

A whisper of wind on his skin was his only warning.

Blue eyes snapped open wide, adjusting to the dim light of the chamber with practiced ease. Stone tiles shattered into dust beneath his feet as he exploded forward. His left forearm met his assailant's and he contained a wince. _Fucking kekkei genkai, small wonder they slaughtered you all_.

Blue eyes met sneering green and Naruto felt his lip curl instinctively.

"I pray Orochimaru-sama finally lets me kill you today," Kimimaro told him, his soft voice belying his murderous intent.

Naruto said nothing, choosing instead to spin in place and slam a side-kick into the pale teen's chest. It barely moved him, predictably, and he closed in quickly. He ducked a bone sprouting from the Kaguya's elbow that would've pieced his skull and channeled his upward momentum into an uppercut at his predecessor's ribs. Tightly bound chakra cushioned the blow around his knuckles as a crack greeted his ears. He knew better than to expect a reaction, however.

The blond stood inside Kimimaro's guard and levied a haymaker at the teen's head that was immediately blocked by a forearm that might've been made of steel. Orochimaru's favorite servant stared him down with disdain as he held Naruto's arm in place. "Trash like you has no place here."

He snapped a punch to Kimimaro's jaw once, twice, three times, and only managed to bruise his knuckles. _Like punching a goddamn wall. Except walls break_. A low kick to the shin threw the older nin off balance just enough to alter a follow up palm strike to Naruto's sternum. He merely skidded back as opposed to being sent airborne, mercifully not gasping for breath.

Pivoting right, Naruto spun out of the way of a dropping heel that cracked the stone floor. Shards of bone flying from Kimimaro's fingertips halted his immediate counter, however, forcing him to duck. He twitched, quelling the urge to call a Rasengan to his hand, snarling all the while. _It's not worth it._

Blurring forward in a body flicker, Naruto lashed out with a high kick at the older teen's head. He palmed a kunai as Kimimaro ducked and, using his momentum, torqued himself into a throw at point blank range.

The knife caught the white-haired youth in the right shoulder, but he might as well have missed for all the mind Kimimaro paid it. The older teen rose from his crouch, a blade of bone in his hand that Naruto leaned away from as it slashed at his chest. _I'm not close enough_, he thought, cursing himself as he parried a stab with an open palm to the wrist.

He blocked another stab with another jab, lamenting his lack of reach even as the bone slipped from Kimimaro's grasp. The blade twirled in the air, mesmerizing for a moment, before Kimimaro snatched it in a reverse grip and brought it down mercilessly. Naruto turned sideways, making himself smaller to avoid the slash, but had no time to capitalize on the momentary opening. Blocking a stab to his face, he managed to catch the immediate follow up shot at his exposed leg with both hands, and lifted the blade up and over his head with a grunt of effort, throwing Kimimaro's guard open.

Blinding pain tore a scream from his throat a moment later. He glanced down at the bone protruding from his right shoulder, its hilt still encased in Kimimaro's open palm.

Naruto torqued himself hard, managing to withhold another scream as the bone was torn from his flesh, and landed a haymaker across his assailant's jaw. It was enough to snap the older teen around, his footing lost, and the blond wasted no time. He leapt and spun and snapped his heel into Kimimaro's chest with enough force to send him flying.

Landing lightly, he blasted forward. He brought his knee up in time to catch the white haired teen in the chest, keeping him on the back foot, but not for long. A wide punch met the older teen's left forearm and halted. Blue eyes met green once more before Kimimaro's fist clocked him in the face with a spray of blood.

Naruto managed to hold his composure, leaning right and bringing his left arm up high to take a punch to his ribs. He ignored them cracking, bringing his left arm back down to pin his assailant's close to his body and rotating hard. The blond leveraged himself backward and up, turning the momentum into a throw that flipped Kimimaro back-first into the stone tiling beneath them.

Not wasting a moment, Naruto drew his right fist back and punched down with everything he had. His fist met the older teen's chest with enough force to level a building, and the resulting shockwave popped his ears as the ground beneath Kimimaro turned into a crater.

The faintest glow of the cursed seal was warning enough to see Naruto leaping backward in time to keep his hand from being sliced off. He landed lightly, watching warily as Kimimaro pushed himself to his feet, the bones of his ribcage crisscrossing at his front. The blond rolled his right shoulder, grimacing at the lance of pain, and bared his teeth. _Minute and a half. Full ten seconds quicker than last time. You're getting better_, he thought sardonically.

He watched, warily, as contorting and parallel lines spread outward from Kimimaro's upper chest. _Speed uptick. Strength uptick. _

This wasn't meant to be a fair fight. At least not for him.

His enhanced opponent whipped a hand up level to Naruto's chest, and the blond flattened himself against the ground. He felt the projectiles pass harmlessly overhead with a whisper of displaced air, strafing right as soon as they were clear. _Focus focus focus!_ he yelled at himself, forcing his breathing even as he dodged Kimimaro's stab. The downward strike pierced the tiled floor as Naruto rolled, watching warily as the older teen reversed his momentum and tore after him.

The world sharpened to a pinpoint to his senses, Naruto's chakra circulating furiously to keep up with the teen who was faster than him to begin with. He felt his eyes begin to water as chakra suffused his legs, the high speed motion beginning to take its toll. The blond planted and squared up in the time it took to blink, just managing to lower himself as Kimimaro exited his shunshin, bone blade poised to bisect him.

Ducking the blade, Naruto leaned low inside Kimimaro's guard and planted an uppercut between the exposed ribcage. The older teen rocketed up and over the blond with a muted grunt. Exhaling, Naruto closed his eyes momentarily, thin tendrils of chakra rising to them. Blue eyes popped open a moment later, the world around him a shade blurrier.

Spinning, he leapt to his left into a shunshin. He saw Kimimaro follow him, halted, and blurred back toward his assailant to the sound of shattering stone beneath his feet. Precise control kept the world from dissolving to tunnel vision as the two teens met, forearms crashing together hard enough to shake dust from the walls.

Naruto blocked a wide stab at his torso with punch to Kimimaro's forearm and knocked the blade free. It spun momentarily before the older teen snatched it in a reverse grip with his other hand, slashing it back at Naruto's neck.

The blond leaned back to avoid having his throat cut, and rolled back onto his hands. Vaulting himself, he planted both his feet in Kimimaro's chest with a grunt of exertion.

The older teen stumbled back a step as Naruto stayed low. The blond torqued his body into a spin that swept Kimimaro's legs from beneath him and, still spinning, leveraged himself into a kick to the torso that sent his nemesis flying.

Naruto tore after him, the speed of his body flicker making his eyes water even through the chakra that protected them. He reappeared behind Kimimaro with his arm outstretched in a deadly clothesline. The older teen crashed into him with a '_crack_' that echoed through the room before dropping bonelessly to the floor.

Triumph creeping in at the fringes, Naruto channeled chakra to his right hand, hardening his fingers in the closest thing to a jutsu he was allowed.

A wave of malevolent energy blew him off his feet he could even cock his fist back to deliver the death stroke. He gasped as he landed hard, shoulder screaming in protest. Naruto ignored the pain, though, leveraging himself to his feet with a grunt, only to feel a crushing pressure around his neck.

A monster stood in front of him. Where Kimimaro was pale, the monster had dark grey skin that was knitting back together before Naruto's eyes. Six enlarged vertebrae creeped out of his back, easily visible over the top of his head.

The blond sputtered impotently as yellow eyes regarded him balefully. His hands clawed at the vice about his neck, only succeeding in bloodying his fingers.

"You are _unworthy_," the monster growled. Naruto felt himself pulled closer, the grip on his neck tightening. "Undeserving of the honor Orochimaru-sama bestows upon you."

Naruto's vision began to blur and he reached, blindly, for the Kyuubi. He felt the stirrings of malice within him a moment before, "That's enough," rang through the room.

The pressure about his neck disappeared and he dropped like a puppet with its strings cut, gasping for breath. He felt, more than saw, Kimimaro fall to a knee beside him, head bowed in supplication. Heaving, Naruto pushed himself to a knee. Weakness would not be tolerated.

Pale, sandaled feet appeared in front of him silently. "You've done well, Kimimaro," Orochimaru declared. The older teen straightened imperceptibly in Naruto's periphery as the blond clenched a fist. "Kabuto is waiting for you."

"Thank you…Orochimaru-sama," Kimimaro demurred, the hesitation in his voice concealing what Naruto expected was a bloody cough. He felt his teeth grind as the older teen rose and staggered off, his cursed seal induced endurance fading along with his skin. _A fucking cripple_, he cursed, not for the first time.

"And what am I to do you with, my friend?" Naruto was silent, eyes down as he fought to keep his face neutral. "You show such promise, and yet…"

Knowing he was expected to finish the sentence with whatever his latest failure was, he forcibly relaxed his jaw. Insolence would only result in his next "training" session with Kabuto being all the more painful. "I hesitated," he managed around his fury.

"When?"

"At the end. I took too long to gather my chakra when it should have been ready the moment I took the advantage."

"Not incorrect," Orochimaru allowed. "But you hesitated long before. When?"

Naruto blinked. "I don't know." The truth tasted like ash in his mouth as he said it, but he knew better than to waste time fumbling for an answer he didn't know.

"I don't believe you." The blond held back a flinch at the words, though they were spoken in the same soft hiss as everything else his jailor said. "You were given a gift, yet refuse to use it."

_Kyuubi_.

"Shall I let Kabuto know that you enjoy pain, Naruto-kun? Surely he can devise more creative training methods."

"I _don't_."

"So why do you persist with such stubbornness? Your father would not have given you such power if he didn't wish for you to use it."

Naruto's vision went red for reasons that had nothing to do with the nine-tails. _He's goading you_, a tiny voice shouted at him from very far away, just loud enough to beat back the rage. He bit his tongue hard enough to make it bleed.

Orochimaru sighed heavily, theatrically – Naruto knew better than to think emotion ever got the better of him. "You refuse your father's dying gift knowing that you cannot hope to win without it. I ask you: to what end? Is your life meaningless to you, finally, after all these months of struggle? Have I wasted my time when I should have turned you over to the Akatsuki the moment you were presented to me?"

"_No_," Naruto gritted out. He felt the malevolent energy begin to writhe within him as his anger rose.

"So you say. Understand, my friend, that you only harm yourself with your intransigence. Akatsuki will come for you all the same, and I will not give you leave to hunt them until I know you won't die for some foolish pride."

"It's not _pride_." _I have no pride anymore. _"I can't control it," the blond finally managed. "It's like a haze on my mind."

Orochimaru was silent, clearly in thought. "Rise," he commanded after nearly a full minute. Naruto did so gladly. "How fares your chakra control?"

The blond blinked, staring at the pale man before him. The Sannin's face was closed as it often was when he was puzzling something. "Improving."

"Your drills will change. Begin the leaf sticking exercise again, with the nine-tails' chakra instead of your own."

Naruto shook his head. "It won't work. It comes in waves, not droplets."

A pencil thin eyebrow rose, though he didn't look displeased, Naruto noted with some relief. "Then you shall simply become precise enough to dam the sea itself."

The blond fought a groan at the impossible task. He would not complain, however. "I'll need time," he said. He hated himself for the words, but without them he'd be faced with Kimimaro in two days' time. And there'd be nothing to stop the older teen from powering his cursed seal from the beginning.

A magnanimous smile split Orochimaru's lips. "You shall have it. Kimimaro will need more rest after your bout." It was the closest thing to actual praise he was likely to receive and, in spite of himself, Naruto straightened slightly.

"You have three days."

His mouth fell open, but the Sannin had already turned his back to him, striding away with purpose. "Do not waste them, my friend."

Naruto let himself fall bodily to the floor, strength finally leaving him. Head shaking, he stared up at the ceiling, unsure what he was looking for.

/~/

**Howdy. We're rolling.**


	3. Chapter 2: Demons

He blinked himself awake and immediately brought a hand to his neck. Sighing in relief at the absence of pain, Naruto sat up, padded across the cool floor, and lit the large candle that illuminated most of his room. The stone walls were awash with a dull, brownish-orange that he'd long since gotten used to.

Naruto stood, arms loosely held at his sides, staring at nothing.

He had three days. "Three fucking days," he muttered. _It's not _fair_!_ his mind shouted. His fingernails bit into the flesh of his palms hard enough to break the skin. Blue eyes squeezed shut as impotent rage seared through him, and he bit his tongue to keep from screaming at the utter injustice of it all.

He let himself hate.

Naruto lost himself in the maelstrom that was his mind for a few moments, the whirring of his chakra sending unnoticed hairline fractures into the floor beneath his feet. The thin blankets on his cot rustled, the scrolls on his shelves clattered. A moment later, inhaling a ragged breath, he wrested control of his life's essence, calming the storm his mind created even if its epicenter still whirled out of control.

His life hadn't been fair since very nearly the moment of his birth. Denied his parents, denied his birthright, denied respect and dignity for so long he barely knew what they felt like. A childhood spent dodging the sneers of civilians, clamoring for scraps of their affection, only to be rebuffed time and again. All of which could have been ended with a word, all of it in the name of safety when he had never been safe at all.

The black and red cloaks swam in his mind's eye, Itachi's warning ringing in his ears like it was yesterday. _"They will hunt you, Uzumaki Naruto."_ His father's 'gift,' as Orochimaru was fond of calling it. The power he'd been cursed with that, for all its malice and the fear it inspired, somehow still wasn't enough to save his life.

None of it was fair. Not Akatsuki, not Orochimaru and his gods damned _ambition_, not the strip of paper pinned to his wall of Konoha's condemnation.

_I should be used to it by now_. The thought pierced the haze of his torment like the edge of a knife. "Get ahold of yourself," Naruto said aloud. _Give him what he wants, get what you need_. The mantra that had kept him going the past six months rang like a siren in his mind. The blond inhaled, drawing a too-deep breath into his lungs and holding it. He clenched his calves before moving up to his quads, his core, his chest, up and up until his entire body was tight with tension, and held it. His mind turned entirely to the feeling of breath in his lungs, quieting the thoughts that had plagued him moments before.

When finally his chest began to burn at the exertion of holding the air in, he blew it out slowly, gently, from his lips, letting his tensed muscles relax at last.

"Focus, Naruto." Nothing had ever been accomplished by wallowing. Kimimaro wouldn't drop dead out of spite, Kabuto and Orochimaru wouldn't blink out of existence merely because he wished it, and Akatsuki wouldn't stop hunting him simply because he deserved to live as much as anyone else.

His life wasn't fair and never had been, and there was no going back.

Opening his eyes finally, Naruto ran a calloused hand through his hair. There was work to be done.

The blond discarded his sleepwear in a blink. He donned his usual training gear, black pants and white, loose fitting gi held up by a thick band at his waist.

No matter how he sliced it, three days was too short a time for any meaningful chakra control training. Becoming 'precise enough to dam the sea itself,' as Orochimaru had said, was laughable. His own chakra was hard enough to control, let alone the Kyuubi's.

Kage Bunshin it was.

He slipped out of the underground base through one of the half dozen trap doors he knew of, entering the bright, sunlit world behind a small outcropping of rocks. Grass country was balmy this time of year, thankfully milder than the steamy fire country climate he was used to. He breathed in the fresh air greedily, letting the sun warm his face for a few moments before he got to work.

A few dozen blades of long grass were picked in short order, and the blond ventured back underground. He padded through the long, cool hallway, doing his best to ignore the sound of his own footsteps. There were no indicators of what was what below ground – each door looked exactly the same as the last, whether they led to a room like his own, one of Orochimaru's laboratories, or the cavernous halls that he dueled Kimimaro in.

Long hours wandering had taught him the way and, in short order, Naruto stood in one of the training halls surrounded by himself. Three dozen sets of blue eyes regarded him with varying degrees of interest.

"You guys know the drill. The fox's chakra only. And if one of you dispels, for the love of god, _wait_ a few minutes before dispelling yourself. We've got enough headaches as it is," he ordered.

His clones, normally independently expressive, said nothing as they spread out through the room. Naruto watched for a moment as his thirty-six doppelgangers sat, stood, or leaned against one of the training poles Orochimaru had installed, staring down at the grass in their hands. The sudden sensation of creeping malevolence tweaked the back of his head; apparently a few clones had simply jumped right into it.

The original dropped where he stood, crossing his legs under him, and closed his eyes. Thirty-six clones meant one-hundred and eight days as opposed to the three Orochimaru had given him. And provided they did as instructed and didn't leave him with a debilitating migraine, most of those days would be useful.

_Big 'if' right there_, he mused uncharitably. His clones were about as good at taking direction as he himself was, which was to say they hated it – even from themselves. But the odds were far better with over three months of work. He knew to be thankful for that much at least; three dozen clones was the upper limit of what he could conceivably focus on while still maintaining some level of attention outside of the training.

Taking a deep breath and inhaling, Naruto cast his mind along the connection that he shared with all of his clones. By now, twenty were already diving into the nine tails' chakra and his mind recoiled reflexively at the malice they radiated. The remaining sixteen were each re-familiarizing themselves with the exercise with their own chakra, the blades of grass sticking to their foreheads with ease.

The blond pulled himself out a few moments later and rubbed at his temples. "Fucking focus feedback loops," he muttered, eyes shut against the discomfort of trying to split his attention thirty-six different ways.

His internal clock chimed a warning and he rose as a bead of sweat rolled down his neck. _Keep at it_, he sent silently to his clones. Stepping out of the training hall, Naruto cracked his neck but failed to reduce the creeping pressure that had suddenly appeared. Time had little meaning below ground; which meant one either had to constantly peek into the outside world to have any concept of it, or develop a routine so airtight that one simply knew what time it was.

"Just get it over with," he told himself, forcing his feet to move.

He padded lightly down the hallway, footsteps ringing in his ears as he worked to calm his heartrate. _Just breathe. It'll be done soon._ His nails tasted blood as they dug into the skin of his palms.

Halting outside another unmarked door, Naruto closed his eyes for a moment and centered himself. _Don't give him anything. No fear._ Exhaling hard, he pushed the door open.

The echoes of fluids dripping from one container to another met his ears first, as it always did. The smell came next, the stink of rot mixed with the acidic bite of whatever cocktails Kabuto had cooked up very nearly burning Naruto's nose hair. He opened his mouth to let air in so he wouldn't have to use his nose, but knew it was too late – some smells simply lingered. The air was cold as the blond stepped into the laboratory, raising the hairs on his arms beneath his sleeves. He kept his eyes forward as he strode purposefully toward the laboratory's end, not needing an update on which specific corpses had decayed beyond salvage upon the walls.

The low, orange light indicative of flickering candles led him to the back of the long room. He emerged from the darkness to see Sasuke leaned back in a treatment chair, an intravenous tube sticking out of each of his arms. His white gi was bunched around his waist, held up only by the purple ropes he wore every day. The blue of his veins was clearly visible against the backdrop of the pale skin of his chest, whatever substance he was being pumped full of revealing them in stark contrast. Onyx eyes beheld him lazily in the silence.

"Dobe," his friend greeted, nonplussed.

"Bastard." Naruto's eyes flickered around the dimly lit space and, not seeing or sensing Kabuto, let himself relax a touch. "The hell's all this for?"

Sasuke quirked a mocking brow. "Thought you were the only one getting treatment, hn?"

"Wouldn't call it 'treatment,'" the blond murmured. "And I think my regimen is slightly different than yours." It was a safe bet, considering Sasuke wasn't screaming his lungs out. "You didn't answer the question."

"Why it's chakra therapy, of course." Kabuto's voice was like oil being poured in Naruto's ears as he appeared from the laboratory's shadows. He fought a shudder as the bespectacled man slipped past him. "Sasuke-kun isn't blessed with your vitality and simply requires a little…assistance."

The young man carefully withdrew the intravenous needles from Sasuke's arms, smirking all the while. Naruto kept from rolling his eyes at the obvious dig at his friend, his blue gaze cutting to Sasuke's. The Uchiha glowered at him, and the blond fought a quirked brow. _Really? You're gonna let him get to you like that?_

"All done," Kabuto declared, tilting Sasuke's chair back to normal. "Limit your chakra intensive training for the next forty-eight hours while the compound takes hold. You'll return here in seventy-two so I can document your experiences."

"Hn." The Uchiha slipped his gi back on as he rose, veins still bulging beneath his skin. Naruto turned sideways to give him room to pass, which he did without another word. Blue eyes watched him walk through the long laboratory and disappear back into the hallway, a creeping unease that was rapidly becoming familiar tickling the back of his neck.

"He's always so quiet," Kabuto groused, tone affected. Naruto's gaze cut back to him, tense once more. "Not like you."

The blond withheld a sneer. _Don't give him anything_, he repeated. "What does it do? The compound," he asked around gritted teeth.

"A host of things you'd never understand." Naruto felt his teeth begin to grind. "In short, it will work to increase the potency of his chakra in conjunction with other, experimental therapies." Kabuto's eyes gleamed beneath his glasses as he finally glanced up at the blond. "You're early today, Naruto-kun. Eager to get started?"

_Don't give him anything._ The blond said nothing; he didn't trust himself enough. He simply shrugged out of his gi and bent down to roll up his pant legs above his knees. Infusing his steps with purpose, he crossed the room and sat down with what he hoped was a facsimile of confidence.

Kabuto chuckled low in his throat. "Eager, indeed." The scientist rubbed an alcohol pad along the insides of Naruto's arms before sticking him with needles hooked up to intravenous tubes. He did the same to the back of the blonde's knees without a word.

Naruto steadied his breathing as Kabuto attached black, metal plates to the chair he sat in. He listened as wiring was clicked into them, then into boxes that he knew were power converters in the corners of the room. Exhaling shakily – _show no fear!_ – he waited anxiously as Kabuto paced around the room leisurely. He felt sweat begin to bead at the nape of his neck and withheld a shiver. _Get it over with, you sadistic fuck_.

After what felt like a small eternity, Kabuto's preparations were complete. Naruto watched from the corner of his eye as the older man slunk over to the treatment chair with his lips turned up in a simpering smile. "You may feel a little _extra_ discomfort today," Kabuto said. "I haven't observed enough of an uptick in your structural development, so the electromagnetic stimulation will be a bit more…aggressive."

The blond didn't need to see the glimmer in the man's eyes to know just how much he was looking forward to it.

"Now," Kabuto continued, folding the metal plates down so that they covered the entirety of Naruto's arms. He moved to the plates hovering over his legs, saying, "I will, of course, be observing, so try not to squirm too much. And, as always, if the discomfort becomes too much, please let me know." The older man rose, the plates in place, and stared down into Naruto's eyes from behind his glasses.

Unable to avoid the gaze, Naruto stared balefully into beady, onyx eyes that were magnified by the corrective lenses. Kabuto was as gifted a liar as the blond had ever met; the naked anticipation in his stare was as honest as he ever got.

He nodded once, curtly, and Kabuto mercifully broke the staring contest with a smile. "First, the growth hormone," he said aloud, as if Naruto wasn't all-too familiar with exactly what was about to happen.

_Don't give him _anything, the blond repeated, the words screaming through his mind as he braced himself. He heard a switch flip and felt the familiar pressure of a solution being forcibly pumped into his veins. It felt like sludge was crawling up and down the lengths of his arms and legs from the inside, and he gritted his teeth. _Breathe, Naruto_, he told himself, fighting a wince as enough hormone was injected into his to fully suffuse his system. His limbs, though he couldn't move them, felt like leaden weights. His breathing shallowed as the sludge made its way into the veins of his chest, compressing his lungs.

Sweat dripped down his forehead as Naruto heard the switch flipped back. _Five seconds_…

"And now to stimulate those tissue fibers," Kabuto said, voice clinically detached in spite of the excitement the blond knew was roiling beneath the surface.

_Don't scream._

His vision immediately whited out as the hum of electricity met his ears, and for one, blissful moment, he felt nothing at all. Agony slammed into him a second later as every nerve ending he could conceive of was set ablaze by the current coursing through him. He was submerged in magma, engulfed in fire hotter than any jutsu. His brain was melting as nails drove into his skull to give it space to ooze out into a puddle.

_Lean in_.

The thought pierced the haze of white hot knives writhing beneath his skin. Naruto was suddenly aware of the feeling of his teeth grinding upon each other hard enough to fracture his jaw.

_Focus_.

Twitching wildly, he managed a shaky breath through his nose, shut tight as his mouth was. His lungs barely expanded for all his effort, and the air escaped in a short, shuddering puff. Undeterred, he inhaled once more, sheer determination keeping his mouth shut to hold back the scream trying to tear its way out of his throat.

_Through self-control comes strength._

In the corner of his eye, through his hazy vision, he saw Kabuto pacing around him, hands clasped behind his back, content to observe the twitching jinchuuriki, and knew he couldn't – _wouldn't_ – give in. His mind turned back toward the liquid fire thrashing across every inch of his body, and felt himself give in to rage.

_Master it_, _it's yours. _

Naruto felt his muscles squirming beneath his skin, his bones groan, and every ligament and tendon stretched to their maximum, and he breathed into it. His breath came slower, deeper, and he felt his chest expand gratefully against the pressure. His pain was his own, and Kabuto – _the sadistic cunt_ – would get _nothing_ from him.

_You're gonna kill him._

His mind shifted away from the pain momentarily as he entertained visions of all the ways he'd pick his torturer apart. Satisfying as it'd be, simply tearing his heart out was too good for Kabuto – _too quick_. Thinking briefly of Kimimaro, he contemplated the merits of ripping the man's spine out by his neck, but discarded it as too difficult. A Rasengan was similarly too simple – _detonation will kill too fast_ – but paused. Holding off the explosion and grinding away at Kabuto's organs as the man desperately tried to heal himself held some merit.

_Remember that_ –

Two of his teeth shattered in his mouth.

The shock of new pain tore a gasp from his now white lips, and the scream that had been lodged somewhere between his throat and lungs was ripped from him at last. Uncaged, Naruto couldn't stop himself from howling as his focus shattered into a thousand useless pieces and the inescapable agony crashed back into him.

His throat was raw seconds later from the force of his scream. Tears blurred his vision and streamed down his cheeks. Through the haze, he heard low chuckle before his beleaguered mind gave in and the world went black.

/~/

Naruto came to in a sewer and was momentarily confused before the cloying malevolence of his tenant washed over his senses. Reflexively, he patted himself down. Everything was where it was supposed to be, and yet:

"No pain," he breathed.

"**You are a fool.**"

He jumped at the sudden voice and brought his gaze upward to the crimson eyes of the Kyuubi. Defiance rose in him on reflex, but he kept his mouth shut through some greater sense of self-preservation. He had enough problems.

"**Have you forgotten our agreement?**" the fox asked him, tails swirling behind it.

"Hardly," Naruto bit out. His deal with the devil in his gut was seared into his memory.

"**And yet you fail to **_**honor it**_**.**" Nine tails slammed into the bars of the great cage and the blond took an involuntary step back. "**You have my limitless chakra at your disposal, but you don't use it. You let these paltry humans break you down day after day and do **_**nothing**_**.**"

Naruto sneered. "What do you care? Do you feel disrespected?"

A wave of decaying rage blew him back another step. "**Do not assign such useless human emotions to me, **_**boy**_**. I care not for your relationship with your jailors. I care only for our goals.**"

"Then get to the point, Kyuubi."

"**The snake has set you an impossible task. You will never have any control of my chakra so long as you seek to draw it from this seal every time. It is too much for you.**"

Blue eyes narrowed. He remembered the rush of malevolence his clones experienced in the training hall – even drawn in tiny doses, it was almost as if the fox's chakra had a mind of its own.

"You have a solution."

"**Simply do not relinquish my chakra back into the seal. Hold it. **_**Use**_** it, and your body will begin to acclimate,**" the fox declared. "**You have no hope of controlling it otherwise.**"

It made a twisted sort of sense. He had always treated the beast's chakra like it was an extension of his own, never mind the Kyuubi was far from human. Why would their chakra be similar?

"What do you gain from this?" Even beleaguered as his mind was from his pain, he wouldn't take the fox at its word.

"**I have told you already,**" the Kyuubi snapped. "**I care only for our goals. You will become strong enough to wipe Uchiha Madara's presence from the mortal plane at last. All else is meaningless to me.**"

Naruto highly doubted that, but didn't dare vocalize it. His mind spun as he performed the calculus: the Kyuubi would never act in any other way than its own self-interest, and he had little way of knowing what that was beyond what the fox told him. He'd be a fool to trust it.

And yet, as with everything else in his miserable existence, his choice wasn't much of a choice at all.

"Our old agreement still holds. You will not overwhelm my mind," Naruto stated, summoning whatever was left of his composure.

"**I will not. Now begone!**"

/~/

His eyes snapped open to the sound of creaking metal. Kabuto was folding the conducting plates up from his limbs.

"I'm afraid we were too far into the procedure to abort when you screamed, Naruto-kun. You have to let me know about your discomfort earlier if you want me to make any adjustments," the older man soothed.

The blond ignored the insincerities, too busy marveling at the lack of debilitating pain in his body. His limbs felt as if they hadn't just undergone minutes of electric overstimulation. They were light, lighter even than they were when he'd entered the laboratory. The persistent, characteristic ache he expected was there if he chose to focus on it, but it sat at the back of his mind, easily ignored.

_Bastard fox came through_, he realized. His two snapped teeth were a distant memory, even as the rest of them felt slightly too big for his mouth. Flexing a hand, he felt sharpened nails bite into the flesh of his palm.

"Are you listening to me?" Kabuto's voice cut through his contemplations, an edge of irritation hiding beneath the pleasant tone.

A sudden urge to tear the man's throat out had to be carefully suppressed. "I'm always listening," Naruto said, voice coming out in a near growl. His eyes cut to Kabuto who stood with his arms hanging loosely at his sides. The older man started visibly at Naruto's gaze, eyes widening slightly.

Satisfaction wrapped about him like a blanket. _Good_. Naruto rose languidly. Standing was no issue. His legs were tired, but they held – the fox's chakra undoubtedly keeping him upright when his whole body ought to have been a gelatinous mess.

He shrugged his gi back on and rolled his pant legs down, ignoring the sticky sweat that clung to him. Glancing to Kabuto once more, he saw his tormentor warily assessing him. Gone was the smug, simpering countenance, replaced with caution.

"Be seeing ya," he said, turning on his heel and striding easily from the room. The hanging corpses were ignored easily, thrilled as he was simply by the ability to walk unhindered.

Naruto pushed himself into the hallway with an almost manic energy, and tore off in the direction of his room. Casting his mind down the link he had with his clones, he found them all in similar states. _Focus_, he barked at them, good as they felt, they still faced Kimimaro in three days.

Satisfied that they were getting back to business, their jobs hopefully made easier by the fox's concession, he entered his room. Naruto stepped into the tiny washroom and immediately bent down to splash water on his still sweaty face. The cold was a welcome shock to his system, which he realized belatedly was running hot. His entire body was warmed, not in the violent way he was used to with the Kyuubi's chakra or with Kabuto's 'treatment.'

It wasn't comfortable, not yet, but it wasn't painful either. He'd deal with it like he would everything else.

Raising his head, Naruto stared at his reflection in the mirror. Violet eyes stared back at him.

/~/

Three days – or one-hundred and eight, depending on your perspective – passed in a blur. Naruto pushed the knife edge of a Kage Bunshin headache to the back of his mind as he waited in the dueling hall. He'd learned quickly that while the Kyuubi's chakra made ignoring pain easy, it didn't remove it. The moment he released the chakra, all the aches asserted themselves violently – it even exacerbated his training headaches.

The blond balanced on the palms of his clawed hands, legs hovering six inches off the ground and extended parallel to the floor behind him. He held his core tight, relishing the minor exertion as it distracted him from the impending clash. He felt no nerves, only anticipation.

He'd come closer to killing Kimimaro than he ever had before. There would be no testing the waters today.

_He'll have the seal activated. First form if he wants to use the transformation shockwave as an attack. Second if he's looking to end this fast._ Naruto bared his teeth, incisors lengthened into fangs. _You'll kill him either way._

Orochimaru would be watching as always. _Give him what he wants. Get what you need._

Displaced air warned him a split second before the oily, polluted chakra of the cursed seal slammed into his senses. Naruto pushed hard off his fingers, torqueing his body into a tight, horizontal spin away from Kimimaro's strike. The blond landed lightly, surveying the muddy brown skin and tightly coiled bone lance coned around the older teen's forearm that was halfway buried in the stone.

_Trying to end this fast, then._

Violet eyes locked with black and yellow and Naruto bared his teeth as a rippling wave of anticipation coursed through him. He bounded forward, a snarl on his lips, toward the still crouched Kimimaro. Claws extended to eviscerate the older teen, Naruto dove for the throat.

He barely had time to brace himself as two feet met his stomach and he was vaulted up and over his nemesis. Naruto spun tightly, landed softly, and strafed away from the bone projectile follow up.

_Use your head, idiot!_ he chastened himself. He couldn't even blame the Kyuubi for the lack of tactical thinking. The fox was true to its word and wasn't messing with his inhibitions – at least not any more than the foreign chakra always did. _Don't get careless_.

Kimimaro sprinted at him, his cursed seal propelling him faster than Naruto's eyes could track. The blond shifted right on reflex, to the older teen's left and away from the bone lance. The claws of his left hand carved through Kimimaro's tunic and skin, but scratched impotently at the bone armor beneath.

The older teen rotated and brought his lance around with a grunt. Naruto kicked it wide as it arced for his chest, then used the same foot to plant a straight kick in Kimimaro's chest. The teen slid barely slid back a step, and the lance shattered into a thousand shards. Kimimaro's right hand, now holding a bone knife, made for the blonde's throat.

Naruto ducked under the slash and swiped out with his right claw at the Kaguya's leg. He drew blood but nothing more, gritting his teeth at the sensation of his nails dragging against bone. _Not gonna work_.

He kicked out to make space, only to have his left foot caught. Violet eyes widening, he drew his leg back with all the strength he could muster, leapt off his right leg, and torqued into a cartwheel that nearly ripped his core to shreds. Kimimaro sailed over Naruto's head as the blond landed, first on his hands and then in a sprinter's crouch.

The Kaguya righted himself as Naruto got his bearings. Metacarpals cut through the air a second later that the blond hopped only feet away from. He sneered, refusing to be led, as the older teen grimaced.

Naruto quelled a thrill of elation at the sight by seizing the initiative. Tiles splintered and were crushed to dust as he burst forward. Clawed hands met the ground halfway between him and Kimimaro, animalistic instincts propelling him like a missile. He plowed into the Kaguya's chest in a graceless tackle. He ignored the slicing of his skin as Kimimaro's rib cage emerged to take the worst of the blow. Naruto rolled with his nemesis, his smaller form gifting him leverage, and dug his claws into the brown teen's stomach.

_No bone there_, he thought triumphantly. Naruto roared, used the momentum of his tackle to roll to his feet, and slam the Kaguya to the stone floor. The older teen cratered with a grunt, and the blond drove his claws down to eviscerate him.

They met Kimimaro's forearm and crashed against the bone impotently. Naruto braced himself as two feet caught him in the chest again, this time with enough power to rocket him to the ceiling. He crashed into it and ignored the pain in his back as dust rained down. Chakra stuck him to the place he'd impacted, and he took a moment to survey his nemesis.

Kimimaro's speed advantage was all but gone, but was still too durable for his claws to do much damage. Steam hissed from the cuts on his shoulders and chest where the Kaguya's ribs had bit into him. _Hit him heavy._ Claws clenched into fists, drawing blood that the blond ignored.

He dropped from the ceiling and landed heavily, the Kyuubi's chakra cushioning him as the floor splintered with hairline fractures. He ducked under a whip made from the older teen's spine – _so that's what did it last time – _and leapt forward.

Ducking the reverse slash, Naruto slashed out at Kimimaro's ankles. The Kaguya hopped over it, and the blond planted a hand, anchored himself with chakra, and spun his body into a vertical straight kick. His sandal crashed into Kimimaro's ribs, shooting the older teen upward in a bastardized Front Lotus.

Quelling the urge to call a jutsu to his lips, Naruto reached down. He tore a splintered tile from the floor and hurled it skyward. It spun like a shuriken until it was crushed to dust against Kimimaro's crossed forearms. Naruto hurled a second, then a third, forcing the older teen to strafe across the ceiling to avoid getting pummeled.

The Kaguya powered himself back to the ground and blurred toward the blond. Naruto threw himself to the right, the cursed seal baffling his eyes but not his reflexes. Bone blades sprouted from each of the older teen's joints, joining the ones already jutting from his ribs.

Naruto grimaced, dodging away from a dropping heel before ducking a punch. Two hands slammed into Kimimaro's thigh, halting a rising knee that would have taken him through the chest. The exposed bone still managed to pick the skin of his solar plexus.

Desperately making space, the blond shoved himself back. He slipped his arms out of his loose shirt as it got caught on one of the Kaguya's blades and furiously channeled chakra to his legs. He felt his skin slice open as he blasted away but shoved it aside.

His legs carried him into one, two, three body flickers away from Kimimaro's breakneck offensive. Blood seeped into his eyes from a cut across his forehead from an elbow. He gritted his teeth as another blade bit into the meat of his thigh. He tasted copper as his cheek was sliced open from the edge of his lip.

He blurred a fourth time and reappeared a moment before the Kaguya. The chakra reinforced claws of his right hand drove into Kimimaro's left shoulder. His breath was stolen a moment later as the older teen shoved a blade through his upper chest in retaliation, beneath his clavicle and out his back. Naruto's vision whited out for a moment as a gasp was torn from his chest.

Rage sharpened the world into clarity a split second later. His left claw clamped down Kimimaro's arm like a vice, refusing to let him draw the blade back. He ripped his claws from the Kaguya's left shoulder, clenched them into a fist, and slammed it into the older teen's face. Fury blinded him to the pain of the blade driving deeper into his chest as he channeled chakra to his fist and hit Kimimaro hard enough to tear the teen from his grip.

Tearing the bone blade from his chest, Naruto palmed it and sprinted after his nemesis. He caught up to the Kaguya before he'd managed to right himself and crashed a straight kick into his ribs. Kimimaro hit the wall of the dueling hall and momentum kept him suspended long enough for Naruto to shove the bone blade through his stomach.

A choked cry left Kimimaro's lips as Naruto pinned him in place. The blond savagely punched his right claw at the older teen's ribs, only to meet a beleaguered forearm that was still as strong as steel. The elongated nails dug in balefully, the Kyuubi's chakra strengthening them enough to carve into the Kaguya's ulna.

Yellow eyes met enraged violet weakly for a moment before Kimimaro slammed his forehead into Naruto's face. The blond yelped, reflexively pulling back, and the older teen somehow leveraged a foot upward and into his chest to shove him away.

Naruto rushed forward but had to halt as bone fragments were blasted at his chest. He blurred away with a furious growl as Kimimaro wrenched the blade from his stomach and pushed off from the wall. His arms hung limply at his sides, his chest heaved, and he met Naruto's gaze with nothing but abject hatred. His shoulders straightened and his breathing evened after a moment, and the blond realized his nemesis was still standing by force of will alone.

_End him_.

Bringing the Kyuubi's malevolence to bear, Naruto cast his chakra out. A millennia of hatred suffused the killing intent and struck Kimimaro like a physical blow. He rocked back on his heels, mouth falling open, and Naruto exploded forward.

The world blurred to tunnel vision for the blond as the Kaguya righted himself a split second later and made to leap away.

_Too slow!_

Naruto roared as his chakra enhanced claw punched through Kimimaro's razor sharp rib cage and out his back with a spray of blood. The older teen stumbled a step, body still attempting to flee, then sagged. An audible sigh escaped Kimimaro's lips as he tipped forward onto Naruto's arm. Empty black and yellow eyes stared outward at nothing, vacant.

The blonde's chest heaved as he stared down at the limp, dead Kaguya on his arm. He half expected Kimimaro to spring to life and run him through, but the seconds ticked on. The sound of blood dripping to the floor snapped him out of the momentary reverie and he yanked his arm back violently. Kimimaro's corpse fell bonelessly to the tiled floor with a thump that sounded too soft to Naruto's ears. The teen's head lolled to the side with its mouth open. Blood poured out of the gaping hole in the corpse's chest and began to pool around the jinchuuriki's feet.

Wrenching his gaze from the older teen's carcass, still brown in death, Naruto stared down at the heart still clenched tightly in his right fist. It should've been bigger. _This should feel different,_ he thought distantly over the sound of his heart pounding in his head.

Maybe it was the Kyuubi's essence tainting his feelings, but he'd expected…something. Something that fit with finally, _finally_ ending Kimimaro's miserable existence. All he felt was tired.

Deep down, he knew the real fight hadn't even started.

The thought rattling through his brain, Naruto tossed the useless organ away with a flick of his wrist, idly wiping the rivulets of blood from his hand on his pant leg.

"Well_ done_, my friend," Orochimaru hissed from behind him.

The blond spun and fell to a knee, quelling the urge to lash out at the Sannin by banishing the Kyuubi's chakra back to the seal. He caught himself with a fist to the tiled floor as his body slumped with exhaustion, the lack of inhuman chakra leaving him momentarily breathless. He inhaled sharply and forced himself rigid.

"Thank you, Orochimaru-sama."

"Rise." He did so gratefully, even as his muscles screamed in protest. "I admit I had hoped you'd throw off the shackles of fear sooner, however…" The word hung suspended and Naruto knew better than to interrupt. He turned to find poisonous yellow eyes raking over him. "…I should know not to question progress, regardless of speed," Orochimaru finished.

The blond held his silence, averting now blue eyes away from his jailor's gaze and struggling to stay upright. _Get to the point…_

The Sannin made a half ram seal that had Naruto inadvertently tensing, but nothing happened. A moment later, four shinobi appeared behind his jailor, each kneeling in supplication. "Orochimaru-sama!" they chorused.

"Rise," Orochimaru commanded, and they did. Three boys and a girl, all who looked slightly older than Naruto, stood arrayed. Each wore the purple ropes indicative of Orochimaru's elite. One was dark skinned with shaggy hair pulled back into a ponytail; his six arms caused Naruto to blink, but didn't otherwise faze the jinchuuriki. Another had three tufts of orange hair and would give any Akimichi in Konoha a run for their money in sheer girth. The girl was slim and had pink hair so dark it was nearly red that fell about her face; she scowled heavily, the only show of emotion visible among the four. The final boy had pale, blue-ish grey hair that hung limply around his face; another set of eyes peered around the right side of his face, and Naruto fought a flinch as he beheld a second head that seemed to sprout from the boy's back.

"Naruto-kun, meet your subordinates. They are the Sound Four; my elite bodyguards." Blue eyes raked over them as each straightened at the words, and Naruto didn't bother pondering the idea that a shinobi of Orochimaru's caliber needed bodyguards. They undoubtedly had their purpose. "They will assist you in your missions against Akatsuki."

Belatedly, he recognized them as the four who had been present when he'd been kidnapped, and kept his face studiously blank. "Thank you, Orochimaru-sama," he demurred, returning his gaze to his jailor. "When do we start?"

The Sannin chuckled low in his throat. "Eager as always, apprentice." The blond bit the inside of his cheek to keep from snarling at the moniker. _You haven't taught me shit_. "Soon. Kimimaro's death shows you're ready for more responsibility, but I'd be a poor sensei indeed if I sent you off in search of Akatsuki as you are now."

Each of the Sound Four had turned, wide eyed, to regard the Kaguya's corpse some steps away, and Orochimaru addressed them, "You are dismissed." The four dropped to a knee once more before disappearing in smoke.

"You and I will leave in two days' time, Naruto-kun." Orochimaru raised his chin, staring down at the blond seriously. "Pack provisions for thirty days."

Naruto blinked, thrown, and only got his bearings as the silence stretched awkwardly. "Yes, Orochimaru-sama."

"Good. You are dismissed. Rest up, my friend," the Sannin said, already turning away.

The blond didn't hesitate, beleaguered legs carrying him from the room with as much speed as he could manage. His mind whirled as he stumbled his way to his room, thoughts jumbled as he tried to process everything that had happened.

As he reached the unmarked door he knew by memory was his, the only thought that echoed was '_Finally._'

He thought no more as he shut the door behind him and succumbed to his exhaustion.

/~/

**Thanks, as always, to the folks at DLP for their help.**


	4. Chapter 3: Time Alone With You

/~/

It was all for naught.

For all their skill, for all their experience, for all their vaunted reputation; it all meant nothing against the tireless might of Iwa's war machine.

It was _infuriating_.

He commanded the forward legion, the tip of the spear that was to break their enemy's lines. The most competent operators placed under his command to lead the offensive that would turn the tide of the war in their favor.

Danzo had been adamant: his men were the best. The best trained, the most well equipped. They followed orders without hesitation. They did not know fear. They did not know pain. They did not know death.

_At least not until their worthless lives are snuffed out_, he thought with vitriol, striding through the camp.

Iwa's strategy was clear: throw enough semi-competent bodies at a problem, and the problem would probably go away. His offensive – if it could even be called such – had been halted less than two days into Grass Country.

His strategies meant little when there were two fresh bodies leaping to take the place of the one that had just been cut down. It was nothing but a numbers game. Iwa had more, Konoha had less. There was no nuance, and that vexed him to end.

For all his training and his jutsu, for all his genius, he could not outsmart this problem. He had been outsmarted on the battlefield before, and it hurt, but it could be borne. He was not yet the greatest shinobi in the land. But to be beaten back by sheer bullheadedness was unconscionable.

He had nearly taken the field himself in a fit of pique, wishing nothing more than to slaughter the zealots Iwa threw against him to a man. Only his rationality had held him back; given enough numbers and even he could be overrun. It had happened to shinobi greater than he, and while Iwa's death squads were no Kinkaku Force, it was a risk he couldn't afford to take.

His immortality wasn't secured yet.

Making matters worse was the news from the eastern front. One of Iwa's jinchuuriki had abandoned the fight and was making his way towards Grass Country. Jiraiya had beaten back Kumo's latest push personally – aided as it was by Iwa's monsters – but had sustained heavy losses and was falling back into Fire Country for reinforcements.

Which boded ill for him. Iwa's legion had been dealing him steady losses over the two months since he'd launched the offensive through Grass Country; contending with a jinchuuriki would push the already unfavorable situation over the edge of being untenable.

He crested the ridge that overlooked the war zone that had been carved out of the forest. Downed trees had been turned to sawdust in the routine clashes, discarded branches and debris from doton jutsu littering the currently deserted battleground. Subtlety had been thrown to the wind once Iwa's legion had beaten back his first strike and, amid mounting casualties, he had summoned Manda to cut a swath through the foliage. The great snake had pushed forward at his command, but he too had been halted after a time.

It had likely saved the battalion from utter obliteration in those first days, however, as Iwa's retaliatory strikes had come fast and brutally. An uneasy stalemate had persisted for the better part of the last two months, each of his subtle incursions rebuffed by overwhelming manpower, and each of Iwa's fended off with mounting desperation.

He sneered, looking down upon the ruination, knowing, as he had for nearly two months, that this battle was lost. The early stirrings of distress gnawed at his mind. He cared little for his home village outside a _very_ select few, but its destruction was not something he had adequately planned for. For all its irritations, Konoha had resources that he hadn't had the time to amass for himself. Resources that he _needed_.

_All plans are amended_, he consoled himself, carefully schooling his expression as he felt one of his men approach.

He turned, and the young looking man snapped a quick salute. "Orochimaru-sama," he intoned without inflection, much like the rest of his soldiers. "Konoha shinobi have entered camp. They requested your presence."

Orochimaru nodded once, dismissing the messenger with a wave of his hand, his hackles rising. He had requested reinforcements from Konoha a week ago – he had but five full platoons left, one hundred men – and his pride still hurt at the request's necessity. It would hurt more if this battle was lost entirely, however, and he mastered himself as he strode purposefully back into the encampment.

Yellow eyes took in the tents without truly seeing them as he made his way back to his command center. He threw the flap back without ceremony, only to be greeted by the sight of Jiraiya's apprentice and Uzushiogakure's last secret.

His eyes narrowed as he took in Uzumaki Kushina's appearance, mind flitting briefly to her disgraced – and now deceased – sensei. Brief fury flashed through him; Hatake Sakumo had gotten all of them into this mess.

"Yes?" he hissed, eyes settling on Namikaze Minato's young frame. The boy was barely twenty, and the dark green vest that marked him a jonin was too pristine to have seen much combat.

"Orochimaru-san," the blond demurred, stepping forward. "You requested reinforcements. We are here to turn back Iwa's tide and help you push forward toward Earth Country."

The sannin blinked, his eyebrows inching toward his hairline. He could feel no other chakra presences nearby that weren't the men already under his command. Only these two were new. "Surely you must be joking…"

A brief bit of amusement passed through Namikaze's eyes before it was quelled, replaced instead by a calm that seemed almost melancholy. "I'm afraid not," he said, and the redhead placed a soft hand upon his arm, as if in support.

Yellow eyes glanced back and forth between the two, finally settling on the last Uzumaki. He was one of a few who knew what the girl contained, but he had been told that the nature of her seal prevented the Kyuubi's power from being tapped.

_Today is just full of surprises_, he mused. Konoha's situation was dire indeed if Sarutobi-sensei was deploying a jinchuuriki. He had steadfastly refused all suggestions of doing so before, despite the urging of the elders.

"I see," the sannin said, mind already awhirl at how to best utilize the new weapon at his disposal. The Kyuubi's power could open up many avenues to breaking Iwa's line. "What preparations do you require?"

"The preparations are complete," Namikaze said. He gestured to the flap of the command tent, and Orochimaru led them outside. "Can you take us to the front?"

The snake sannin said nothing, electing to stride back in the direction from which he had come, the young pair easily keeping pace with him. The trio crested the ridge he had stood upon minutes before, looking down at the neutral zone.

"Iwa's forces are just beyond the tree line," he told the two. "They respond in force to anyone they detect, mobilizing with overwhelming numbers no matter the size of the threat."

Namikaze nodded absently. "That's good. Our intelligence indicates that they have a force between three and five hundred holding this line, with another garrison ten miles north, providing support. We have to force the garrison into a retreat before Han arrives."

Orochimaru nodded at the mention of the Gobi jinchuuriki's approach, the boy's intelligence matching his own. "My men are ready to move at my command. They will flood the forest once Iwa's front line is broken. With your frontal assault occupying the garrison, we can flank from the east and rout them."

"Your men will…not be necessary," Namikaze said. "Instruct them to move once the initial fighting has been pushed past the tree line, but there's no need to expose ourselves to more casualties now. They'll be necessary to maintain the push deeper into Grass once Kushina and I leave."

Orochimaru stared at the boy, askance. There wasn't much that surprised him anymore, but it seemed the blond jonin had learned more than jutsu from his sensei. _Is the Kyuubi's power so great?_ he wondered. He had never fought a jinchuuriki personally, but knew well that they could turn the fortunes of a battle with their sheer presence. They were aberrations, utterly outside the rules of normal shinobi.

The blond held out a scroll that was sealed with Sarutobi-sensei's personal seal. The sannin took it but didn't open it. Its presence alone meant that the Hokage had signed off on this bewildering operation – Namikaze wouldn't place his lover in such a situation without the Sandaime's express order.

"As you say," Orochimaru said quietly.

Namikaze sighed, eyes fluttering shut. Uzumaki stepped in front of him and wrapped her arms around him, squeezing tightly.

"You know I love you," she told the blond as he gingerly put his arms around her.

"I love you too," he said.

"No matter what," she said fiercely.

Namikaze opened his eyes and favored the redhead with a slight smile. "I know, Kushina. Thank you." Uzumaki said nothing, but pulled his head forward into a heated kiss.

Orochimaru looked on with dispassion, quelling his momentary impatience at having to wait to see the Kyuubi's power. Who was he to rush the young lovers? He had no need for such affection, but it may well be the last time the two would see each other. The odds were long even for a jinchuuriki.

The blond rested his forehead on Uzumaki's for a long moment before pulling back, laying a soft kiss upon the girl's brow. He untangled himself from her arms a second later, and stepped forward.

"I'll be right behind you," the redhead told his back, and the sannin felt his eyes narrow. Namikaze nodded once and leapt off the ridge into the neutral zone without a word.

_What?_ Orochimaru thought, utterly baffled.

"Once Minato advances, I'll head down to pick off anyone he left behind. The Hokage says we can't afford to take prisoners," Uzumaki said, distaste coloring her voice. "Send your men in once I make it to the trees."

"Wait," Orochimaru said, confusion overwhelming him. "Namikaze is engaging them _on his own_?" he asked, askance, even as red clothed bodies rushed onto the battlefield.

"He'll be fine," Uzumaki said, calm despite the ludicrousness that was unfolding.

_Against two garrisons?_ The sannin knew his mouth was agape, but couldn't muster the fortitude to close it. He circulated his chakra, ready to leap to the boy's defense before he was overrun – he held no affection for Namikaze, but the boy was undeniably talented. His death would be yet another reprehensible waste in this war, never mind Jiraiya's reaction when he found out his prized pupil died under his watch.

He turned to the battlefield, only to still as Uzumaki laid a hand on his left arm. "You'll only get in his way," she told him, violet eyes staring at him without a hint of jest.

Orochimaru narrowed his own at her, surveying her for a moment before he ripped his arm out of her grip. "If you wish so badly to see your lover slaughtered, I won't stop you," he hissed. "But I'll let you explain to my teammate just how he died."

Musical laughter that somehow managed to convey nothing but condescending derision met his proclamation. He felt his hackles rise, and stifled the urge to end the impudent girl's life as she said, "You'll see. You'll all see."

He turned his eyes to the battlefield to see no less than three full platoons rushing to meet Namikaze. The blond strode toward them purposefully and tossed three oddly shaped kunai in a lazy arc. The three multiplied into dozens that fell upon the advancing shinobi, but Orochimaru knew it wouldn't be nearly enough.

"Blink and you'll miss it," Uzumaki quipped snidely from beside him, and the snake sannin heeded her warily as Namikaze disappeared without fanfare.

_What jutsu is this?_

Before he had the time to think anything else, his eyes managed to catch a brief glimpse of blond hair before an Iwa nin crumpled soundlessly to the ground. He was followed by another. And another. And another, the only herald of their death a flash of sunlit hair that disappeared just as suddenly as it came.

A full platoon was dead by the time Orochimaru had blinked twice. A shout had gone up from one of the remaining Iwa shinobi for backup, but another platoon had been cut down by the time more men had burst from the tree line.

There were no screams as the third platoon met their deaths, Namikaze apparently moving too fast even for panicked cries to manifest.

"How on earth…" the sannin breathed, even as the blond paused to survey the dead before plucking two of his kunai from the ground, hurling them at the oncoming enemies, and disappearing once more.

"Hiraishin no jutsu," Uzumaki said as a dozen more men fell like puppets with their strings cut. Shouts of alarm were beginning to sound, the Iwa shinobi unsure of what exactly was befalling them. They began to stand back to back or in groups of four, but they fell just as quickly as they moved, utterly powerless against Namikaze's incomprehensible speed. "It's his masterpiece."

"No one can move that quickly."

From the corner of his eyes, he saw the redhead's lips quirk up. "He can."

The Iwa shinobi had taken less than a minute to lose over a hundred men, and had stopped advancing toward the blur that was Namikaze, instead turning tail and fleeing into the cover of the trees. Orochimaru couldn't tell how many made it into the forest, his mind solely occupied with processing just what was happening before his very eyes.

This was unprecedented. He knew power. He had seen it. He had fought it. He possessed it. There were dozens of jutsu that could level battlefields and claim dozens of lives at a time.

But this?

Iwa's force was comprised mostly of elite chunin, with tokubetsu jonin interspersed throughout to command platoons. They were seasoned, battle hardened, and had rebuffed Konoha's advances with aplomb for two months.

And they didn't have time to react to what was befalling them. The last of the visible shinobi had dispersed into a discombobulated retreat at the sight of their slaughtered comrades. Namikaze followed them into the trees without hesitation, and the sounds of panic echoed eerily from the forest across the now empty battlefield.

"We've got a minute before the rest of the garrison is dead. Maybe two," Uzumaki declared, startling Orochimaru from his stupor. The redhead hopped down from the ridge and began walking deliberately across the corpse strewn field. The sannin followed her a moment later, eyes wide and a disturbing tingling raising the hairs on the back of his neck.

He felt his heartbeat pick up as he matched Uzumaki stride for stride, passing the first bodies. The redhead paid them no heed, but Orochimaru's sharp eyes flittered from corpse to corpse, taking in the precise slashes and incisions that marked each. Some had their jugulars sliced neatly open, blood pooling around their heads as they rested in death. Others had a single stab at the base of their neck, their cervical vertebrae severed. The stench of death assaulted his nostrils, released bowels filling the air with the scent of sewage.

Uzumaki carelessly flipped the body of an Iwa-nin over. The man's eyes were wide, panicked, and frozen in death, and Orochimaru withheld a shudder.

He used his foot to turn yet another corpse over, and was greeted by the sight of a snarl forever etched on a woman's face. She hadn't had time to process her life ending before it was snuffed out. He couldn't stop the shudder the wracked his body at the sight.

Orochimaru felt beads of sweat begin to pool at the base of his neck and he realized, as if from a great distance, that he was terrified. The emotion was so foreign that he stopped in his tracks, staring down at one of the leftover kunai. At this distance, he could see that it had three prongs and had what looked to be a seal wrapped around it.

"Fuuinjutsu," he breathed even as the kunai kage bunshin disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Minato's mark," he heard Uzumaki call; she had advanced ten meters ahead of him, frozen as he was. "You coming?" she asked rhetorically, turning and walking toward the now silent forest. "He didn't leave any of them alive."

The snake sannin mastered himself with a thought, appalled at his own weakness, but powerless to stop the rapid beating of his heart. _What a terrifying ninjutsu_…

The duo reached the trees a few moments later, and were greeted, unsurprisingly, by even more corpses. The Iwa encampment, which Orochimaru had barely glimpsed on the first day of combat, was a ghost town. Weapons were strewn across the ground, discarded in death before they had had the time to be used. Dozens of corpses were face down on the forest floor, clearly cut down as they tried to run.

Uzumaki made her way over to a large tent that was clearly the command center and slipped in. Orochimaru followed, and was greeted by the sight of a burly, flat nosed man dressed in Iwa fatigues bound and shaking. The very much alive man – a jonin – whimpered at the sight of the two Konoha shinobi, and the snake sannin quickly schooled his features into the appropriate visage of disdain.

He would show no weakness here, despite the sweat beading on his neck. "Kitsuchi," he hissed at the man who commanded Iwa's forward legions. "We seem to have you at a disadvantage, old friend."

Beady black eyes stared right through him without seeing him, and the goateed man just shook his head.

"It's done," Namikaze's voice spoke from beside Uzumaki, and Orochimaru nearly jumped, yellow eyes flying to the blond. He hadn't felt a thing; no surge of chakra indicative of the body flicker. Nothing at all. One moment he wasn't there, the next he was. Without warning.

"All of them?" Uzumaki asked, her arms sliding around her lovers waist. Namikaze nodded silently.

_Two garrisons…slaughtered by one man_. _In minutes_. The snake sannin tore his eyes away from the young jonin with effort, refocusing on the bound commander in front of them.

"You appear to have missed one," he quipped, managing to keep his voice level through sheer force of will.

Namikaze nodded to his lover, and the redhead unwound herself. The blond stepped forward and behind the terrified man, a single motion freeing him. Namikaze stepped in front of the Iwa-nin once more, staring down at him. The jonin managed to muster up what looked like righteous fury in his eyes for the man who had singlehandedly massacred his entire force. It was tempered by the utter horror just beneath the surface that was visible to everyone in the room.

"You're free to go," Namikaze told the jonin who had gingerly climbed to his feet.

"You killed them," Kitsuchi managed to croak.

"I did. You should report back to your father."

"You killed all of them," the Iwa jonin repeated, taking a step back.

Orochimaru felt the slightest of smiles break through the haze of the last few minutes. "I believe you broke him, Minato-kun," he chuckled.

The sannin's words seemed to break the Iwa commander from his shock, black eyes finding Orochimaru before widening and moving back to Namikaze. He took another step back, clearly processing his situation, before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Namikaze sighed, and Uzumaki threaded her arms about his neck from behind, leaning up to whisper in his ear. The blond nodded after a second of contemplation, and turned to face Orochimaru. The sannin, through every ounce of willpower he possessed, held his ground without a flinch.

"Our work here is done, Orochimaru-san. Your men will be able to move into Grass unimpeded. Iwa has men stationed twenty miles from the northern border, and the Hokage believes you'll be able to deal with them," the blond said robotically.

The sannin nodded absently, surveying the boy. There were no signs of fatigue about him, and his chakra levels were hardly lower than when he had appeared in his camp – less than ten minutes previous. The only sign of strain was the slightest tightening around the boy's eyes.

"Where will you go?" he asked the duo.

"The eastern front," Namikaze answered. "Jiraiya-sensei is having some trouble with Kiri and Kumo and we're to even the playing field a bit for him."

Orochimaru nodded absently, eyes drifting to Uzumaki, who was still draped over her lover for reasons unknown, the duo oddly subdued given the great victory they had created. He, himself, wasn't one for celebration, but most of his comrades were.

"Give Jiraiya my regards," he told them, a hint of sardonic humor entering his voice at the thought of his bumbling squad mate. _Leave_, he commanded silently.

Namikaze nodded. The boy reached into his leg pouch and withdrew a three pronged kunai, the same seal emblazoned on it that apparently gifted the boy with the ability to murder hundreds in mere moments. The blond tossed it to him, and he plucked it from the air on reflex alone, feeling his heartbeat pick up once more as he held the weapon.

"So I can come back quickly if you need support," Namikaze said. "Good luck, Orochimaru-san."

The duo was gone before he had time to blink, no sound or smoke to signal their departure. Yellow eyes turned to stare down at the seal on Namikaze's weapon, searching, mind curiously blank.

Fuuinjutsu wasn't his forte – Jiraiya had always been far more interested in the arcane study. The seal was indecipherable, and he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that whatever it did was outside the realm of his understanding.

_No sound. No chakra surge. No warning._

When his lieutenant found him in the tent some minutes later, he handed the man the kunai.

With strict orders that it be kept far away from him.

/~/

He drew himself from his musings with a satisfied exhale. He stood amidst a maelstrom of blond and knew vindication. His apprentice's doppelgangers flittered from shadows to light and back to shadows as they flickered through the trees that surrounded their camp. In the middle, weight resting on the palms of his hands as he braced his core, was the original.

Orochimaru's lips quirked at the peculiar meditative position. If the minor exertion helped the boy focus, he wouldn't force him to change. _Individuality breeds interesting outcomes_, he mused. Results were what mattered in the end.

His right earring shifted with the displaced air as a clone passed close by. The boy's chakra control had improved tremendously in the short months he'd been with him, and even more so in recent days. The Kyuubi's chakra was more volatile than any he'd encountered before; unsurprisingly considering the being it belonged to. Naruto's wrestling of it had done wonders for his own chakra control.

Sharp eyes followed the clone as it bounded from the forest floor to the canopy and through the branches. A second clone blurred past it, on its way back down, and Orochimaru switched his focus as it paused for a split second and tore off to the left. It zigzagged violently, pushing the limits of the body flicker before slamming unceremoniously into a tree trunk. He glanced back to the original as the clone dispersed into chakra smoke, but Naruto didn't so much as twitch.

_Still room for improvement_. Orochimaru was thankful Jiraiya had bestowed Minato's shunshin notes on the boy. It was a blessing that one of the Yellow Flash's signature advantages would be working to further his goals in short order. Naruto's Kage Bunshin training couldn't impart physical prowess, but the knowledge gained was invaluable. He'd already gotten over a day of training in the two hours since sunrise.

It was time for something more direct, however. "Apprentice," he said softly, voice carrying to the nearly two dozen blondes with a small application of wind chakra. He suppressed a smile as they all froze, from the clones furthest in the forest to the two attempting the leaf soaking exercise behind a nearby tree. "To me."

Twenty three puffs blanketed the clearing in chakra smoke for a moment. When it cleared, Naruto was kneeled in front of him. "Orochimaru-sama."

The snake Sannin surveyed the bowed blond. They were some two months from his fourteenth birthday, and the changes of the last six months were beginning to reveal themselves. He had grown, the malnutrition of his early youth conquered at last with the combination of proper diet and Kabuto's therapies. Naruto would never be imposing the way Kumo's Hachibi was, his genetics wouldn't allow for it, but he would be packed with muscle given time.

Not for the first time did he marvel at Konoha's utter lack of vision. He had known sentiment had softened Sarutobi in his old age, but to the extent to leave their greatest asset ripe for the picking? _Absurdity_, he thought shaking his head slightly. They had left the boy unattended, and for what? The hope of a childhood?

A small part of him was disappointed in how far his former sensei had fallen before his death. The larger part was all too happy to capitalize.

"You have improved." Orochimaru motioned for the boy to rise, and he did. The top of the boy's head reached his shoulder now, he noted with satisfaction. "By the end of this trip you will have my blessing to hunt them." Eyes that were somewhere between blue and purple widened slightly, and the snake Sannin saw naked anticipation warring with dread. He chuckled. "Is that fear I sense in you, my friend?"

Naruto's expression shuttered immediately. "No," he declared, as if trying to speak it into existence.

"You are not yet gifted enough to lie to me, apprentice," Orochimaru returned, infusing his voice with a hint of wrath. The jinchuuriki didn't flinch, but chagrin flashed across his face briefly. _Good boy_. "But worry not," he said magnanimously. "You will not be hunting for the likes of Itachi just yet."

The young blond blinked. "I don't understand," he said at length.

Orochimaru turned and strode from the clearing into the trees; Naruto hastened to follow. "The first thing to know about Akatsuki, Naruto-kun, is that they are more a network than an organization. Those that hunt you are the most dangerous, but even shinobi of their caliber cannot be everywhere at once. They are supported by numerous cogs, cells, and agents that act as eyes and ears. Occasionally, if a member needs replacing, one may be called up."

Naruto processed this, face closed. "How many are there?" he asked quietly.

"A question only one man could answer, I'm afraid," Orochimaru declared. He banished the distaste for Pein to the furthest reaches of his mind. Neutralizing _that_ man was a task for another day. "Just know that they have people everywhere. The leader has done an admirable job of cultivating a reputation for Akatsuki across the continent. You couldn't find a nuke-nin above C-rank that hasn't heard of them."

"They recruit that many people?" the young blond asked, askance and a trifle terrified.

"They do not _have_ to recruit. It is unlikely you will ever experience the reality most nuke-nin face. It is not an enviable existence. Akatsuki offers a semblance of stability for those who can provide valuable services." Orochimaru chuckled darkly, impressed with Pein's reach in spite of himself. "Most would trip over themselves to be of use."

"And these are gonna be the ones I'm hunting?"

The snake Sannin withheld a smile at Naruto's single-minded focus. He was never cowed for long. "They are. You will begin with those I'm familiar with from my time with Akatsuki; eventually you will be researching and following up on your own leads."

Orochimaru turned abruptly, pinning his apprentice in place with his gaze. "Make no mistake, while Akatsuki is happy to employ the dregs of our world, they also utilize shinobi of some talent. More than one that I know of could kill you as you are now if you are not careful. I would hate to see your potential wasted so."

Defiance crossed the boy's face for a moment before he got control of his expression. _He still does not believe me_, Orochimaru mused with some humor.

After a moment, Naruto nodded resolutely. "I won't fail."

"You will not." The snake Sannin halted, satisfied with the density of the forest around them. The trees were newer here, growing closer together and leaving less room for maneuverability. He snatched a scroll from his single utility pouch and unfurled it in one smooth motion.

Two puffs of smoke heralded the arrival of twin jian blades. He tossed one to Naruto, which the blond caught without a blink. Question was written plain across his whiskered face; Orochimaru allowed himself a smile.

"It is time that I took a more active interest in your training. There is much we will develop on this trip. This is part."

Naruto glanced down at the simple, unadorned, dual edged sword in his grip. "I've never used a sword before," he said unnecessarily.

"You will learn."

His apprentice wordlessly tested the balance of the blade before giving it a few experimental slashes. Orochimaru felt his lip curl and snapped, "Do not bandy it about like a common kunai. It is an extension of your arm and your will."

Naruto stopped waving it about – _thank the heavens _– and turned to regard him, a brow raised challengingly. "I thought all weapons were an extension of my will," he said, parroting an age old shinobi axiom.

"Some require more elegance in their wielding, apprentice."

Indigo eyes flashed. "Will you finally be teaching me, then?" he asked snidely.

The snake Sannin withheld a grin. _Impudent boy_. "Is experience not the greatest teacher? You will never grow if you cannot learn from your own mistakes."

"Life's too short to only learn from my own mistakes."

It sounded like something Jiraiya would have said, and Orochimaru chuckled deep and low. "Then come," he ordered, beckoning.

Naruto waited a second, adjusted his grip to something approaching acceptable, and lowered himself into an athletic crouch, the jian pointed directly forward. He lunged forward, edge poised to skewer Orochimaru, and the Sannin turned him aside with a negligent flick of his wrist.

The blond spun with the parry and brought the blade around in a two handed slash at his chest. Orochimaru took a single step back, letting the swing pass harmlessly in front of him. His apprentice shifted forward, changing tactics by dropping a hand from the sword and swiping at the Sannin's ankles. It met Orochimaru's jian with a high pitched, keening note.

The snake Sannin smirked. _Good instincts._ He flashed inside Naruto's guard with a single step, hooked his left foot around the blonde's extended right, and slashed at the neck.

Naruto barely got his blade up in time to block the blow, and was sent sprawling to the dirt as the kinetic force caused him to trip over Orochimaru's foot. "To use a blade properly, you must fight with your feet first," the Sannin instructed. "Never extend outside of your power base. Any competent shinobi will exploit your lack of balance."

His apprentice rose, fuming at the indignity. "I thought you only cared about ninjutsu," he murmured.

"Just because ninjutsu is the greatest of the shinobi arts does not give you leave to neglect the others." _As you'll soon learn_. "Did you learn nothing from Kimimaro?"

Naked aggression flashed across Naruto's face at the mention of the dead Kaguya. He dropped into a ready stance once more. Orochimaru raised a taunting brow, and he slashed forward with a grunt.

"You telegraph your strikes," the Sannin said, lazily stepping away from a downward slice. "Would you so blatantly reveal your intentions with your knives?" he asked, ducking a slash at his face.

Naruto tucked his elbows closer to his chest, took two steps, and stabbed out. He halted his strike midway through, pivoting quickly into a cut at Orochimaru's knees. Not biting on the feint, the Sannin hopped over the strike, landed light as a feather, and planted a straight kick into the blond.

Still in the midst of his slash, Naruto tumbled inelegantly as Orochimaru kicked him in the direction of his inertia. He flashed to his feet without hesitation. Small, quick steps carried him back in range where he slashed diagonally down at Orochimaru's left hip. The blades met with a '_clang_' and the blond stabbed immediately upward at the Sannin's neck.

A minor application of chakra allowed him to contort his way around the strike. Naruto was left extending at nothing but air, though he wasn't over extended Orochimaru noted, pleased. The blond rotated about, lashing out in a horizontal slash that the Sannin blocked. He held the blades together for a moment, making note of Naruto's controlled breathing and balance. _He adapts quickly_.

He shoved the boy back inelegantly, changing tactics. Naruto stumbled a step but righted himself in time to block another cut at his throat. "Block with the flat side," Orochimaru instructed. He twisted his wrist, sliding his blade over the top of Naruto's and down, halting only when the edge had bitten into the boy's hand. "Never allow you opponent to gain leverage."

He allowed his apprentice to step back, hissing. "Isn't that why blades have cross-guards?"

"Your hands will be the least of your concerns if you let an opponent reach a dominant position, apprentice."

The boy glared at him, baleful. "Where'd you learn this, anyway?"

Orochimaru's lips quirked. "Sarutobi-sensei sent me to train with a samurai for six months when I was your age. He thought it would teach me humility."

At the mention of the deceased Hokage, Naruto burst forward with a cry. _That will not do_.

Parrying a heavy overhead strike, Orochimaru pushed upward and threw Naruto's guard wide open. Indigo eyes widened in time for a kick to crash into his solar plexus and throw him backward. He flew for a moment before crashing ignobly into a tree trunk, cracking it.

Orochimaru was in front of him in flash, pressing his jian into Naruto's throat hard enough to draw blood. "You do _not_ attack in anger."

"Yes, Orochimaru-sama," the jinchuuriki wheezed.

"Your emotions must be in check at all times. How can you hope to defeat Akatsuki if the mere mention of a dead man sends you into a rage?" he asked rhetorically.

"I understand."

"Do you? You ask to be turned loose against our enemies with such glaring weaknesses." He shook his head. "My old comrades do not share my penchant for mercy."

"It won't happen again," Naruto growled.

The snake Sannin pressed the blade tighter against the boy's throat for two seconds before relenting. "Talent is nothing without a mind to guide it. You possess the former in spades. Do not let it go to waste." He stepped back, giving Naruto room to stand, which he did haltingly.

"It's not that easy," the blond gritted out, fighting to keep his voice level.

"Not with Konoha's training still fresh in your mind, I imagine," Orochimaru allowed. He paused, pondered, and changed his approach. "You are familiar with both of my former teammates." The boy nodded, a quizzical look in his eye. "Exceptional shinobi. In conjunction, they would be more than capable of ending me. Yet when we met, they did not, despite me being in no condition to fight."

He let the implied question hang suspended between them. "They, along with all Konoha shinobi, possess a fatal flaw. _Sentiment_. They are ruled by it. It leads them to hesitate, to lose focus. Do you know how the Third Great War started?"

Naruto shook his head, and Orochimaru continued, immersed in his instruction. "Hatake Sakumo was given a mission as tensions escalated between Konoha, Iwa, and Kumo. He and his team were to sabotage an exchange of jinchuuriki. If done properly, it would have left Iwa and Kumo at each other's throats. He failed not because he was overwhelmed by force or struck down by poor information. No, he failed because, when his team was threatened, he abandoned his mission to save their lives. His actions, which exposed Konoha's interference, solidified the alliance, and began hostilities in earnest."

He spread his arms wide. "Sentiment," Orochimaru declared. "It is unlikely your mistakes will result in the death of thousands. Your own life, however, is very much at stake."

Naruto was quiet for a minute; Orochimaru let the silence hang heavy, allowing the boy time to process. Nothing grabbed his attention like the imminent threat to his life.

"I understand," his apprentice said at length, voice subdued.

"You will eventually." Baleful indigo eyes rose to glare at him. "Do you believe that you can so quickly leave Konoha's teachings behind when you've, as yet, failed to do so?"

"…no."

"Then do not glare at me for stating the obvious." He punctuated the statement with a spike of killing intent, and only barely kept an eyebrow from rising at Naruto's lack of reaction. _Perhaps the Kyuubi inundates him_. It would require investigation. Fear likely wasn't needed to _truly_ keep the boy in line anymore, but he knew he couldn't claim Naruto's allegiance fully. Theirs was a partnership of necessity; Naruto had no other options and knew it well. But he would be lax if he didn't carefully steer the headstrong blond while the greater partnership was solidified. _The Four will be instrumental_.

"Stand up, Naruto-kun," he ordered, banishing greater plans to the furthest reaches of his mind. "Your training is not finished today."

The blond pushed himself to his feet, the jian had shifted in his grip. It was reversed, similar to how he knew Naruto wielded his knives. _Unorthodox_. The boy formed a cross-shaped seal around the handle. Orochimaru grinned widely as three additional blonds appeared from smoke, tongue lolling to the side.

"I don't remember giving you leave to use ninjutsu," he declared, watching as two of the clones readjusted their grip to something more traditional.

"You said I would learn. Let me learn." And there was that delightful defiance.

"As you say, apprentice."

It was all the invitation Naruto needed. Orochimaru turned aside a reverse slash at his torso then spun out of the way of twin stabs, one at his neck and the other at his legs. He caught a clone's jian before it could carve his eyes out and leveraged it into the path of its twin. He maneuvered his blade into a vertical parry that halted the third clone's diagonal slash at his exposed back. Sidestepping, he brought the final clone into focus. It managed to block a lightning fast stab, eyes wide at the sudden ferocity, and was powerless as Orochimaru swept its legs before a heel kick to the temple sent it sprawling.

It dispelled a moment later, leaving just two and the original, who was watching with narrowed eyes. Orochimaru turned back to the other two in time for one to feint forward, only for the second to slash its jian upward. The Sannin leaned back to avoid getting sliced open from hip to shoulder, inwardly pleased at the boy's combat instincts. The strikes were clumsy and still far too telegraphed to land, but Naruto was a quick study.

Orochimaru blocked two simultaneous slashes at his heart. He pushed back and felt his eyes widen as both clones dispelled into smoke. He righted himself in time to parry an upward slash from the original who blurred into the space his clones had just vacated, flipping backward with the momentum and to create space.

A delighted cackle slipped past his lips. The boy was learning, indeed. He formed a half ram seal and the wind howled, forcing Naruto into a crouch and anchored to keep from being blown away.

Orochimaru watched as the blonde's eyes bled from indigo to violet and blinked as Uzumaki Kushina's face stared back at him in full. The legacy of a once great clan, bred together with the might of Konoha's Yellow Flash. _Glorious_.

The effect disappeared as whisker marks deepened and elongated and incisors sharpened into fangs. Orochimaru marveled at the raw potential standing opposite him and allowed himself a moment of unadulterated satisfaction.

The moment passed and he shifted his own grip to mirror Naruto's. If this was to be a true spar, it would be wasteful not to experiment for himself.

/~/

Naruto plopped down to the delight of his gelatinous limbs. He exhaled hard, leaned his head back against a tree trunk, and thanked whatever gods that existed for having learned the kage bunshin. His clones were doing the heavy lifting setting up camp, and it was only through sheer numbers and the threat of Orochimaru that made them any semblance of efficient. For all the chakra he had, he'd only ever been more tired after fighting the Ichibi.

The snake Sannin was sat cross legged in the middle of the clearing they were to call home for the night. A brush was in hand as he made what Naruto was sure were elegant strokes on a scroll, the contents of which he couldn't bother being interested in.

_Not bad for the first day_, he mused. For all that his blood boiled at the sight of the pale man, he couldn't deny that he was an effective teacher. Most of the 'kenjutsu' work was immediately relatable to his taijutsu. And the sheer experience of squaring up against one of the Sannin could never be understated – never mind doing it with the kage bunshin feedback loop. He was certain he'd learned more in one day with Orochimaru than he had the previous six months combined.

He was simultaneously giddy and livid at the thought.

The last of his clones, having set up camp, dispelled. Naruto let his eyes drift shut for a single, glorious moment. The day's exhaustion hit him all at once; they'd trained for two hours at kenjutsu before Orochimaru had decided to continue their trek in a mock running battle. He'd simply herded the blond in the direction of wherever they were going.

Naruto's lips quirked upward at the fact that, for all their differences, Jiraiya and Orochmaru taught in remarkably similar ways.

A spike of killing intent saw his eyes opening before he could peruse the thought in any real detail, and he quelled his irritation. It was Orochimaru's preferred way of getting his attention and, while it couldn't hold a candle to the Kyuubi sealed in his gut, it wasn't insubstantial.

The snake Sannin's pasty face stared back at him, utterly impassive per usual. "I don't remember giving you leave to rest, apprentice," the older man said, his sibilant voice doing its best to raise the hairs on Naruto's arms.

Quelling rebellious thoughts before they could truly form, Naruto fought to keep his face blank – Orochimaru was far too good at recognizing emotions even before they were truly expressed.

"I had thought we were finished for the day," he managed after a moment. "My apologies." He rose on tired legs that felt like they were inches from giving out. _No weakness_, he chided himself. Catching himself before he could stumble, he reached desperately for the Kyuubi's chakra.

It suffused him in an instant, and Naruto barely kept himself from moaning in abject relief as the exhaustion was wiped from his limbs like it'd never been there. Orochimaru surveyed him for a moment and the blond forced himself not to fidget. He always felt like a specimen under one of Kabuto's microscopes when the Sannin stared at him.

Like he was being dissected and being pieced back together.

"Your training will never be finished," Orochimaru declared, lips peeling back in a mimicry of a smile.

Violet eyes narrowed. "Isn't proper rest just as important for development?" Naruto asked, more out of a desire to be contrary than any hope of getting out of whatever was planned for him. His master had loosened his rope regarding the blonde's barbed tongue, and he planned to take full advantage.

"Ah, but jinchuuriki don't play by the same rules as other shinobi, do they. Surely you know this by now, my friend."

Naruto couldn't help his grimace. Every teacher he'd had since Asuma had demonstrated that in one way or another, though training him through nothing but combat seemed to be a constant. He wouldn't even feel today's bruises when he woke up tomorrow. Kimimaro had beaten him within an inch of his life more than once and he'd been back two days later each time. He'd never been ready for it, but the sheer fact that he _could_ made him different.

"Aberrations," Orochimaru continued, speaking more to himself than Naruto. "Faster, stronger, more durable. Bodies more malleable. We will be pushing your limits this trip, Naruto-kun, rest assured."

Anticipation warred with wariness in his gut at the words. He shoved them aside with what was becoming practiced ease. "Thank you, Orochimaru-sama," he ground out.

A slim eyebrow rose. "I thought you would be more excited to begin truly bridging the chasm between Akatsuki and yourself."

The older man seemed to take perverse pleasure in making him spell out every emotion that wasn't gratitude at his benevolence. "It's been a long day," was all Naruto said, refusing to bow.

Yellow eyes pinned him in place with such force he was surprised killing intent hadn't been used. While the Kyuubi's unrelenting malevolence had inundated him to the Sannin's more banal chakra, being mentally taken apart was far from enjoyable. "And so it has," Orochimaru allowed after a few seconds. "Sit. Training need not be physical."

"Thank you, Orochimaru-sama," Naruto said again, actually meaning it. He held tightly to the Kyuubi's chakra regardless as he dropped, not convinced he wouldn't need it.

"Tell me, apprentice, how many jutsu have you mastered?"

Naruto blinked at the non sequitur. He opened his mouth to answer, then closed it. What sounded like a straight forward question was likely primed like an explosive tag; Orochimaru didn't ask simple questions. "How do you define 'mastered'?" he asked in lieu of answering.

The older man leaned back, approval radiating outward, and the blond quelled a traitorous thread of satisfaction at the reaction.

"A very good question. For our purposes, consider mastery discovering the upper limits of what a jutsu is capable of, and understanding not just _how_ to use it, but _when_ is most optimal in any given situation."

_Or when _not_ to_, was implied. Naruto cocked his head, considering. He knew precious few jutsu in the grand scheme of things; fewer than twenty, in fact. _Gonna have to rectify that_, he realized. He knew four fuuton techniques, two katon and was reverse engineering a third, three doton techniques, and the rasengan. The rest were supplementary techniques like the kawarimi and shunshin. As far as the 'upper limits'?

"Zero," he said at length. The closest was probably the rasengan – it was hard to see how it could be any better than it currently was – but he decided to err on the side of caution.

"Indeed. Your knowledge of the jutsu you have accrued is adequate, yet you do not truly understand what they are capable of," Orochimaru said. "Know this, apprentice: to have any chance at all against the Akatsuki, _adequate_ will not be enough. You must _excel_. From the simplest D-ranked ninjustu to the most complex S-ranked, it is not enough to simply know how to perform it."

The snake Sannin rose fluidly. "Create two kage bunshin," he ordered. Two puffs of smoke revealed twin, violet eyed Narutos standing at attention. "You can perform the doton: doryuuheki, correct?"

Taking its cue, the first clone hopped back to the edge of the clearing, sped through seals – _tiger, hare, boar, dog_ – and slammed its palms to the forest floor. A six foot high wall sprung from the earth, hiding the doppelganger from view. Naruto contained a smirk at the wall's depth – over three feet. He'd improved in its usage since Jiraiya had thrown the technique his way.

Turning to the original, Orochimaru said, "Observe." He flew through seven seals faster than Naruto could track, reared back, and spat a roaring gout of flame in the shape of a dragon's head at the wall. Naruto's eyes widened at the sheer _heat_ emanating from the technique as it flew through the clearing and plowed into the earthen wall with a crash.

The left-most part of the wall disintegrated after a split second of impact, followed shortly by the right before the whole wall was utterly obliterated. His clone had a nary a second to hurl itself away from the dragon, and dispelled as its right leg was caught in the immolating flames.

Naruto winced from his position leaned against the tree trunk as Orochimaru cut the jutsu. _A warning would be nice_, he thought uncharitably.

"The Karyuu Endan," the Sannin mused. "One of Konoha's signature techniques. Performing it is something of a rite of passage for any jonin with a katon affinity."

The blond felt himself nod, adding it to the list of techniques he'd need to learn once he'd powered through his katon training. He'd finished doton not long after he'd arrived at Orochimaru's base, but had been focused more on not getting killed by Kimimaro than any ninjutsu in the intervening months.

"Again," Orochimaru ordered the second clone. It sped through the same seals without a word and, through his connection, Naruto felt the overloaded chakra it poured into the doryuuheki. The second earthen wall burst from the ground an instant later, two feet taller and another foot thicker.

Orochimaru said nothing, flipping through his seals once more and rearing back. A dragon's head exploded forth from his mouth once more, but instead of a solid bullet of orange flame, this dragon had scales. Flickering blues blurred with pure white and red so bright that Naruto had to squint against the sudden, furious light. He barely had the chance to process the sheer _detail_ in the jutsu's creation before it had split into three heads, each as detailed as the original, and diverged around the sides and over the top of the suddenly useless earth wall. The resulting explosion blew the wall to smithereens as all three heads converged on his helpless clone faster than Naruto could blink.

The technique cut a moment later, leaving the clearing dry, sweltering, and sooty. Orochimaru looked unbothered as he met Naruto's incredulous gaze as it turned from the casual devastation.

"And so you see: the difference between _competence_ and _mastery_." The snake Sannin blinked. "Or perhaps you feel it."

Naruto said nothing. His clone's memories were nothing more than a split second of panic before its existence had been snuffed out. There was no struggle, no hope of escape. He shivered.

"Most shinobi toil away, attempting to learn as many ninjutsu as they possibly can, without regard for how to properly use any of them," Orochimaru was saying. His lip curled. "The Uchiha were especially known for this. At the height of their power, one of the world's greatest kekkei genkai was reduced to little more than base mimicry. _Wasteful_," he all but spat.

The older man shook himself a moment later, yellow eyes boring into Naruto once more. "The strongest shinobi understand mastery. Salamander Hanzo gave my teammates and me the name 'Sannin'. His control over water was so great he could freeze the very air in your lungs as you breathed." A languid smile split Orochimaru's lips. "At the height of _his_ powers, he hunted S-ranked shinobi that entered Ame's borders for sport. _That_ is what you must aspire to, apprentice."

Naruto inhaled, doing his best not to choke on the still visible ash left over from his master's technique. The familiar sense of creeping dread at the type of shinobi he had to become simply to _survive_ tickled the back of his mind, but he pushed past it. He had long ago resolved that he would make the most of this situation, and, _finally_, Orochimaru was seeing fit to teach him. It was no time for fear.

"I understand," he declared, nodding once, with feeling.

Orochimaru chuckled low in his throat. "You will."

/~/

**Shout out DLP homies as always. Feel free to drop a review.**


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